Employment tribunal dismisses former SFO investigator's whistleblowing claims

A former Serious Fraud Office investigator who said he had blown the whistle on the organisation over the approach of raising concerns about investigation matters has had his employment tribunal claim dismissed unanimously.

Philip Jackson, an investigator at the SFO from 2019 until earlier this year, brought a public interest disclosure claim against the SFO in relation to three alleged protected disclosures. The SFO denied the allegations against it. 

Handing down oral judgment, employment judge Forde said the three-person tribunal found Jackson’s claims of suffering a detriment as a result of a protected disclosure not well founded. Jackson’s claims were dismissed unanimously. The tribunal found Jackson ‘prone to making serious allegations without evidence’.

The tribunal found the SFO’s submission that what Jackson said was not a qualifying disclosure was well founded. The instruction to Jackson not to put observations about a case in writing was not a breach of the prosecution code of practice but rather a request for staff to exercise a degree of caution when discussing matters on the claim file. The tribunal also found there had been no reputational damage to Jackson in the ending his temporary promotion.

The judge added: ‘The tribunal finds the claims of whistleblowing detriment are dismissed in respect of each one. The claimants had failed to demonstrate to the tribunal that he made qualifying disclosures and in any event the claimant failed to demonstrate the acts he relies on as detriments can be viewed as such. The claim is dismissed.’