Part 3: Law enforcement processing Chapter 6: Supplementary Section 81: Reporting of infringements
This section requires controllers to put in place procedures to encourage confidential reporting of infringements of the provisions of Part 3. The intention here is that controllers should have internal procedures to promote the organisation’s compliance with the provisions in Part 3 by encouraging staff to self-report known or suspected infringements without fear of them being victimised, including through the taking of disciplinary action against them. Such procedures should, amongst other things, raise employees’ awareness of the whistle-blowing provisions in relevant employment rights legislation. Part 4A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which applies to England and Wales and Scotland (there is equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland), provides for certain protections for workers who make a disclosure which they reasonably believe and it is in the public interest that one or more specified matters is either happening, has taken place, or is likely to happen in future. The specified matters include a criminal offence and a breach of a legal obligation. Workers who 'blow the whistle' on wrongdoing in the workplace can claim unfair dismissal if they are dismissed or victimised for doing so.