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Another version of the whistleblower bill

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​by Maciej Ogórek

18. January 2023


Another – already the sixth – version of the whistleblower bill was published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre on 10 January 2023. 

Major changes to the whistleblower bill

Several substantive changes have been made to the bill, compared to its previous version. Changes have affected, among others, Article 6 of the bill saying that a whistleblower will be protected by law against retaliation if he has grounds to believe that he has made a public interest disclosure. The whistleblower should also have reasonable grounds to believe that the information is true and involves a breach of law.
The addressee of external reports that may contain information about a crime has also changed. The old draft stipulated that such reports should be received by the provincial (capital city) chief of police. The new draft says that such reports are still to be received by the police, but not necessarily by the provincial chief of police. Therefore, a breach of law involving a crime may be reported to any police unit. 

In addition, the sixth version of the whistleblower bill modifies the rules for issuing certificates to whistleblowers. According to the bill, once an external report has been filed with a public authority, the whistleblower may request that the authority competent to take follow-up actions issue a certificate confirming that the whistleblower is protected by law. Such a certificate may be issued provided that the breach of law can be substantiated. This procedure is intended to limit the issuance of certificates to every person reporting a breach of law. This is because some reports may contain unproven and fabricated information. Please note, however, that in order to obtain the certificate, you only need to substantiate the existence of a breach of law, and not to provide evidence that it has occurred. 

The whistleblower bill is still at the stage of government work. It is unclear whether this is the final version of the bill that will be forwarded to the Polish parliament (Sejm). 

Do you have questions about whistleblower protection? If so, feel free to contact our experts. 

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Maciej Ogórek

Attorney at law (Poland)

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