By Phoebe Seers
BRITAIN’S Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is developing plans to reward whistleblowers who report economic crimes such as fraud and bribery, the government said.
The move would bring Britain closer to the US model, where financial incentives have been used to encourage people to come forward with evidence of wrongdoing for more than a decade.
Britain has for years debated whether to pay whistleblowers for information. Last year, the tax authority HM Revenue & Customs introduced the country’s first US-style reward scheme, offering informants up to 30% of tax recovered in major tax cases.
The shift has been driven by the success of overseas programmes, particularly the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower regime, for which UK nationals are the second-largest overseas user group, the government said.
“We welcome this consultation, having long called for the introduction of a scheme to incentivise whistleblowers. We encourage all those with a view to contribute to the consultation and we look forward to working with our government partners on next steps,” a spokesperson for the SFO said.
UK whistleblowers proposal
The change was recommended in a July 2026 review of fraud prosecutions led by lawyer Jonathan Fisher, who said Britain was losing valuable intelligence as whistleblowers chose to report wrongdoing to US authorities that offer financial rewards.
Former SFO Director Nick Ephgrave said in 2024 that paying corporate insiders to provide “smoking gun evidence” could significantly increase the speed of investigations.
Under proposals set out for public consultation, whistleblowers would be eligible for a reward only if they provide significant, original information that leads to a conviction or enforcement action.
Mirroring the US approach, the government has proposed that rewards be funded from penalties imposed on companies and calculated as a percentage of the amount recovered.
Eliza Lockhart, a senior research fellow at RUSI’s Centre for Finance and Security, said rewards recognise whistleblowing as “the provision of an intelligence service” rather than simply an altruistic act.
“If policymakers are serious about tackling economic crime, adopting an intelligence-led approach is crucial,” Lockhart said.
Eoin O’Shea, a partner at law firm CMS, said a reward-based system “seems reasonable in principle” given the risks whistleblowers can face, including dismissal or workplace discrimination.
However, critics argue that offering financial rewards could encourage reports motivated by personal gain rather than the public interest.
Jo Mackie, an employment partner at law firm Michelmores, said such incentives created a “moral hazard” and risked undermining internal corporate governance, adding that paying whistleblowers was “fundamentally flawed”.
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