Whistleblowing guidance

Ofgem welcomes whistleblowing and encourages individuals to speak up if they have concerns about wrongdoing in the energy sector. Whistleblowing helps to protect consumers and strengthen trust in the energy sector, and we take all whistleblowing disclosures seriously.

Ofgem regularly reviews and improves this guidance in response to feedback or legal changes.

1. What does this guidance do?

This guidance explains what whistleblowing is and how you can blow the whistle on companies we regulate (energy companies, providers of metering services or participants in government environmental schemes, for instance). We also explain the difference between whistleblowing, complaints, and which department within Ofgem you should contact about these issues. We give you information on what protections are available to individuals who blow the whistle and where you can seek further advice and support on whistleblowing.

2. What is whistleblowing?

You blow the whistle when you raise a concern about a wrongdoing, risk or malpractice that affects someone other than yourself, although you too may be impacted. This can be raised within your workplace as well as externally, such as to a regulator.

Some examples of whistleblowing relating to the energy sector include (but are not limited to):

• licence breaches, such as disconnecting vulnerable consumers in winter, or mis-selling energy contracts
• abuse of the government’s social and environmental schemes which are administered by Ofgem
• anti-competitive behaviour in the energy sector
• concerns about the cyber resilience of companies providing essential energy services

Sometimes it’s only through whistleblowing that this information comes to light and can be investigated. You can find out more information on whistleblowing on the government website.

3. Who can whistleblow?

Any employee or worker who witnesses or experiences wrongdoing in the workplace can whistleblow. This also includes former employees or workers.

4. What is the difference between making a complaint, raising a grievance and blowing the whistle?

When you blow the whistle you are raising a concern about suspected wrongdoing that you believe affects others, usually customers, members of the public, or your employer.

Where you make a complaint, it will typically concern a personal experience where you have been poorly treated or otherwise suffered harm as a consequence of another person’s alleged wrongdoing. In the energy sector this might include incorrect billing, poor service, or incorrect installation of solar panels etc. Further information about making a consumer complaint is in section 5.

A grievance is when you, as an employee, have a dispute about your own employment position. If you are an employee we recommend that you refer to your internal workplace policies or alternatively seek independent employment advice. If you are unsure whether your concerns would best be addressed through whistleblowing or otherwise, please contact Protect, a trade union or legal adviser for advice.

5. Consumer complaints

If you have an individual consumer complaint, you should raise this with the relevant energy service provider initially. There are more details on who can help on Complain about your energy supplier. This explains how to contact Citizens Advice, and the Energy Ombudsman service.

If you’ve got a complaint about Ofgem itself, you should write to:

Ofgem Complaints
Commonwealth House
32 Albion Street
Glasgow
G1 1LH

Or email: feedback@ofgem.gov.uk.

We’ll acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days and will write to you within 20 working days to let you know the outcome. There’s more information on our complaints procedure page.

6. When should I refer a whistleblowing concern to Ofgem?

Energy companies are expected to have procedures to let you, as an employee or worker with a concern, blow the whistle within your own company. Although we hope that procedures within your workplace would allow you to raise a concern internally, you can choose to raise a concern with Ofgem. This might be because:

• there aren’t any procedures in your own workplace;
• you’re uncomfortable or not confident about using the procedures; or
• the procedures have been followed but you’re concerned by the nature of the response, or lack of response, by your firm

In any event, you can contact Ofgem, and we would encourage you to do so as soon as you become aware of a concern related to a wrongdoing, risk or malpractice which falls within our areas of responsibility. There is no requirement to raise concerns to your employer first.

7. How do I contact the Ofgem whistleblowing desk?

You can contact our whistleblowing desk by:

Telephone: 0207 901 7121

E-mail: whistle@ofgem.gov.uk

Post:
Whistleblowing Desk
Ofgem
10 South Colonnade
Canary Wharf
London
E14 4PU

We would invite whistleblowers to consider using a non-work related email account or phone number to contact us. It is a less intrusive method of contact should we need to follow up on any matters raised.

Please note, telephone calls may be recorded.

8. How can I get legal advice?

Ofgem cannot give legal advice on whether the protections under whistleblowing law apply to your situation. You may want to seek independent legal advice or contact Protect, an independent charity which specialises in providing confidential and free advice about whistleblowing. Calls are confidential. Protect’s contact details are:

Website: https://protect-advice.org.uk/ 

Telephone: 020 3117 2520

The law on whistleblowing is contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (‘ERA’) as amended. It provides protections for individuals who blow the whistle on their employer.  To make a protected disclosure under this Act, you must reasonably believe that the information you are sharing is in the public interest and that it shows wrongdoing. A disclosure made to your employer will generally be protected under whistleblowing law if it meets the criteria set out in the ERA.

You can make a disclosure directly to Ofgem as the body responsible for whistleblowing in relation to the gas and electricity sector. The disclosure may be protected where you reasonably believe that the issue falls within Ofgem’s remit and that the information you provide is substantially true.

Ofgem’s remit covers activities such as generating, transporting and supplying gas and electricity, operating interconnectors, providing smart meter communication services, and renewable heat generation. It also includes Ofgem’s wider regulatory work, such as setting licence conditions and administering social and environmental schemes.

9. How do I provide information to Ofgem?

We encourage you to give us information in writing, even if initial contact is made with the Whistleblowing Desk by phone. 

We encourage you to raise an issue with us either openly or confidentially. However, if you are worried about doing this, we would prefer you to provide an anonymous disclosure to us, rather than not raising concerns about a serious wrongdoing at all.

Raising a concern openly means giving your name without a request for it to be kept private or requiring your consent to disclose. Raising a concern openly makes it easier to assess and understand the issue and get more information. However, it is possible for you to raise a concern confidentially. This is where you give your name on the condition that it is not revealed without your consent. (Please note there are some circumstances where we may be required to disclose information that would enable a whistleblower to be identified. This is discussed further in section 10). You can also raise a concern anonymously. This is where you do not give your name at all.

If you raise a concern anonymously, we will treat the information just as seriously. We recognise that many people are very worried about being identified when they report concerns about their employers. Individuals should be aware that through the information they provide, they may inadvertently identify themselves.

In most cases, Ofgem will likely need to follow up with additional questions to fully understand the situation and decide on appropriate course of action. Therefore, anonymous reporting can make further enquiries more challenging. Every disclosure will be handled on a case-by-case basis, and we cannot guarantee that action will be taken in all instances.

10. Confidentiality

We take the issue of maintaining the confidentiality of any disclosures seriously and we’ll protect your identity as far as possible. However, we can’t guarantee confidentiality in all cases, for example where:

• you have already raised the same concerns internally, causing your employer to guess the source of concerns; or a limited number of people would be aware of the information, allowing your employer to narrow potential sources down
• we’re required by law to disclose information which would enable the whistleblower to be identified, (for example if a relevant court order to do so is made)

Within Ofgem, your identity will normally only be disclosed to a limited group of people (as appropriate given the nature of your disclosure). In line with the above, we’ll restrict access to any information provided by, or relating to, you, including telephone recordings if applicable.

Our investigators are trained to sensitively protect the confidentiality of whistleblowers. If you have any specific fears about identification or retaliation we encourage you to raise them with us as soon as possible or reach out to Protect, a trade union, or legal adviser for further support.

11. What we’ll ask of you

We do not encourage whistleblowers to proactively obtain any further information from any source, whatever the circumstances, as this might infringe privacy rights or other legal requirements. However, whistleblowers may be asked to clarify the information they provide to us.

12. What we do with the information

We’ll acknowledge the contact we receive from you. If it’s by email, an auto-acknowledgement will be sent. If you do not receive the auto-acknowledgement your email has not been successfully delivered to the Whistleblowing Desk. Should this happen we would advise following up via alternate means.

Once the Whistleblowing Desk has evaluated the information, it will refer it to the relevant area(s) in Ofgem to consider further. A whistleblowing handler will be assigned to take your concern forward. We aim to assign a handler within five working days of receipt and will allocate a member of Ofgem staff who knows about the issue you are disclosing, and who can investigate the issue further. In some instances, there may be both a handler and a subject matter expert assigned if the disclosure requires particular knowledge to progress.

If necessary, the whistleblowing handler will make contact with you (usually by email) to arrange a suitable time to speak with you to get further details of the concern. We usually conduct interviews over the phone if they’re needed or can follow up by email. Please note Ofgem is unable to text whistleblowers in advance of a follow up call. We would suggest whistleblowers provide a telephone number that they would be comfortable receiving a ‘cold call’ on and/or provide periods of availability.

Face to face interviews are rare and would usually be attended by at least two Ofgem staff. We don’t visit whistleblowers at home.

We will assess the information provided to decide whether further investigation is warranted at this stage.

We will also consider if there are other agencies or bodies which may have a legitimate interest in the information. If other agencies or bodies appear to us to be more appropriate we will either:

• encourage you to contact the agency/agencies themselves directly; or
• depending on the severity of the concern we may be obligated to pass the information on to another body, and a whistleblower should consider this possibility before making a disclosure to us

Because potential whistleblowing concerns are varied in nature, it is not possible to give precise timescales for investigating your concerns. But the whistleblowing handler will ensure that your concern is progressed as quickly as possible.

We will use the information you have provided in line with our privacy notice.

13. Continuing contact with you

We cannot update you on the progress or outcome of the issue that you have raised. Often, our governing legislation places statutory restrictions on the information we are able to share (for example, the Utilities Act 2000). New investigations are normally published on the website when they are opened. This information is available on our Compliance and enforcement page.

Additionally, Ofgem is required to publish an annual report on the number of disclosures it has received and how they were progressed. The report does not disclose information on the identity of the source, business or nature of disclosures received nor can these be deduced from the content.