In half of the cases reviewed by PCaW, the employee left the business after they blew the whistle, either through dismissal or resignation. A worrying 22% of employees reported being victimised for making a complaint.

A major concern is that once an employee has made a whistleblowing complaint many employers seem unaware of how to handle the complaint or prefer to hide their heads in the sand. The report stated that following a whistleblowing complaint 37% of employers denied there was a concern, while 26% of employers chose to ignore the concerns altogether.

PCaW noted an alarming increase in whistleblowing cases from the education sector, which rose by 57% from the previous year. They were unable to account for this sudden spike.

The largest rise in cases, however, belonged to the healthcare sector, which saw a 61% increase from the previous year. PCaW attributed this spike to the release of the final report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and the publicity surrounding that event.