Whistleblowing at Cambridge University

An Employment Tribunal from 1-28 June at Bury St Edmunds is now listed on the public website courtserve. The case number is 3307960/2023.

This case is listed as PIDA. In other words, the Claimant — Prof Neil Wyn Evans — is alleging that he suffered detriments by acting as a whistleblower. Whistleblowers are protected from retaliation under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA)

Cambridge University’s whistleblowing policy is here. Specifically, a staff member can make a whistleblowing disclosure if he or she has a reasonable belief that one or more of the following has occurred, or is likely to occur :

• a criminal offence
• failure to comply with legal regulations
• financial or non-financial maladministration or malpractice or impropriety of fraud
• academic or professional malpractice
• a risk to the health and safety of an individual
• environmental damage
• a miscarriage of justice
• sexual harassment

At the University of Cambridge, responsibility for administering the whistleblowing policy rests with the Academic Secretary, the Registrary or the Vice-Chancellor.

We have voluntarily redacted the names of the Second, Third and Fourth Respondents.

As with all Employment Tribunals, members of the public may attend either in person or remotely. Standard instructions are available on the CourtServe website, repeated below:

Requests from the media and members of the public to observe a hearing remotely should be made in advance to watfordet@justice.gov.uk to allow for inclusion during the hearing set-up. The naming convention in the subject heading of the email request should read “MEDIA OR PUBLIC ACCESS REQUEST – AN Other v AN Other – Hearing Date.

Commentary on the underlying events should be avoided until they have been presented in open court. They may then be reported under the principles of open justice.