Jersey’s draft whistleblowing law: Key features and first impressions

On 16 March 2026, the Minister for Social Security presented the keenly awaited draft whistleblowing law to the States Assembly. If adopted, this landmark piece of legislation will introduce statutory whistleblowing protections in Jersey for the first time and represents a significant development in the island’s employment law framework.

The draft law follows the Jersey Employment Forum's recommendation in June 2025 that Jersey introduce whistleblower protections to align more closely with the UK and Europe and enhance the island's reputation for good governance.

The Minister has now confirmed an intention to create a 'straightforward and uncomplicated statutory whistleblowing process as a first step'.

In this article we share a high-level overview of the draft law and our initial thoughts on its application.

What qualifies as a protected disclosure?

As expected, the draft law covers all employees across all sectors.

To benefit from whistleblower protection, employees will need to make a 'protected disclosure' regarding wrongdoing. Wrongdoing is defined broadly and includes failure to comply with the law. Wrongdoing can have occurred in the past, be occurring now or be planned for the future. It will not matter whether it takes place in Jersey or elsewhere. However, internal employment disputes and grievances will not be covered.

Importantly, to amount to a 'protected disclosure' the employee will need to have a reasonable belief in the reported wrongdoing and that the disclosure is in the public interest and explain their grounds for forming those beliefs. The latter requirement results in narrower protection than currently applies in the UK, where employees are not required to articulate their reasonable belief. This should make it easier for employers to identify protected disclosures in Jersey.

A disclosure which purports to be a protected disclosure will be treated as such until the contrary is proven. This means protection will apply from the outset with the burden falling on the employer to demonstrate otherwise. This will likely mean the focus of a defence on any whistleblowing claim will be on alleged retaliation and causation rather than the protected status itself.

Who can receive a protected disclosure?

Disclosures will need to be made to one of a defined list of 'receivers'. This includes the subject itself, including the employer, and certain designated statutory bodies and officeholders (e.g. an elected States Member or applicable regulator).

Disclosures to the media are only protected in certain circumstances, where a previous substantially similar disclosure has been made and it is reasonable to make the disclosure to the media. This is intended to give employers comfort that they will ordinarily have an opportunity to address matters internally before there is risk of them being made public.

However, it is notable that the draft law does not reflect certain additional requirements under UK law designed to limit the scope of third-party disclosures or define what factors will be taken into account to determine reasonableness. We expect much of the discussion in coming months will focus on whether the bar to media disclosures is high enough.

Duties on recipients of disclosures

No whistleblowing policy is required under the draft law. However, unexpectedly, the draft law does impose duties on receivers of protected disclosures, including providing notice of receipt, taking reasonable steps to investigate and resolve the issues raised and protecting the discloser's identity where possible.

This goes further than the Employment Forum's recommendations. Although there is no express sanction for failing to comply with these duties, noncompliance may expose a recipient to reputational risk and could adversely affect their position in Tribunal proceedings.

Whistleblower protection and remedies

The draft law requires that an employee who makes a protected disclosure must not be treated 'less favourably' than an appropriate comparator and any retaliatory dismissal will be automatically unfair (i.e. no qualifying service period applies).

Going further than UK legislation, the draft law also extends protection to people who have: expressed an intention to make a protected disclosure, encouraged another person to make one, given information in support of one or are believed or suspected to fall into one of these groups. This opens up the level of protection significantly. Whilst the aim is to ensure others affected by the consequences of whistleblowing are protected, it arguably cuts across the prescriptive requirements for what amounts to a protected disclosure.

Claims for less favourable treatment may be brought against the employer and individuals. A defence is available for an employer that can prove it took all reasonable steps to prevent less favourable treatment (e.g. through regular training, comprehensive policies and procedures and taking a pro-active step to addresses any issues which arise).

Maximum compensation for a successful claim is aligned with existing discrimination law at £30,000, of which up to £30,000 can be for injury to feelings.

Contracting out

The draft law currently prohibits any contracting out of the law which would mean a statutory compromise agreement would not amount to a valid waiver of a whistleblowing claim. It is unclear if this is intended and will likely be a further point for discussion as the draft law progresses.

Next steps

Whilst no formal consultation is being run, the Minister has encouraged feedback from interested parties on the draft law for consideration by the incoming Minister in July. As a result, our current expectation is that the law will not be in force until the second half of this year, at the earliest.

In the meantime, we will be collating responses to share with the Minister and would welcome engagement from clients and contacts on the draft law.