Confidential reporting to OFSI
Source: gov.uk (2025-06-26)

Guidance for those who wish to confidentially report to OFSI.

This guidance has been created to inform those who wish to provide confidential reports about suspected breaches of UK sanctions (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-financial-sanctions-guidance) to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (‘OFSI’). This includes, but is not limited to, those who consider themselves to be whistleblowers (and who may be protected under employment legislation) and/or those who wish for their reports to remain confidential (whether they are whistleblowers or not). Please note, if you have a statutory or professional obligation to report to OFSI you should (unless you have identified a need to use this confidential process) report the information via the compliance reporting form process as outlined here (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/suspected-breach-of-financial-sanctions-what-to-do).

The email address for submitting confidential reports is xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx), more information on what to include can be found within this guidance.

You can choose to tell OFSI who you are and provide contact details or remain anonymous. Before making that decision, please read the guidance below.

Deciding whether to submit a confidential report

If you have witnessed, overheard, or hold information about a suspected breach of UK sanctions and you wish for your report to remain confidential, you can submit a confidential report to OFSI.

If you are considering submitting a report to OFSI about your employer, someone that you know well, or something you have heard from others, you will understandably have questions around the process and protections offered to you.

You should know that OFSI greatly values the information that individuals share with it in confidence, and protecting your identity is a key priority. OFSI takes its duty of care seriously. All confidential reports submitted to OFSI are kept securely and dealt with on a need-to-know basis to ensure identities are protected.

It is important that OFSI can gain an understanding of the wider context of any report made, therefore OSFI would encourage you to provide a form of contact. OFSI will only use the information you provide when it understands the risks associated with such usage. If you submit a report that contains your contact details OFSI may, after considering the information you have provided, contact you to discuss further.

If OSFI contacts you for further information, it will only ask you to share with it what is already in your knowledge. OFSI will not ask you to actively seek to obtain further information after you have confidentially reported.

Please do not tell anyone that you intend to make, or have made, a confidential report to OFSI, unless you are doing so for the purpose of obtaining confidential legal or professional advice.

What OFSI will do with your information

When OFSI receives a confidential report, it will assess whether the information is of value to OFSI or wider Law Enforcement. OFSI may seek to contact you to discuss the situation or clarify the information provided if needed.

OFSI may share information with relevant authorities where appropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, law enforcement authorities such as the Police, National Crime Agency and HMRC. OFSI always protects the identity of its confidential reporters. While OFSI might have to share the information you have provided, it will not disclose that this originated from a confidential reporter, unless it is legally obliged to do so.

Unfortunately, OFSI cannot provide feedback on information provided to it or how the information has been used.

Whistleblowing protections for employees and workers

Whistleblowers are protected by the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) (as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA)), which means that you may obtain a remedy if you are hurt, suffer detriment, or are dismissed because you have blown the whistle in the public interest. This is enforceable through an Employment Tribunal.

The ERA was amended by PIDA to encourage and give workers the legal support to speak up if they have concerns about wrongdoing in their workplace. It makes provision about the subject matter of the disclosure, the motivation and beliefs of the worker, and the person(s) to whom the disclosure is made.

Employees and workers who report certain types of wrongdoing may be protected by the ERA. OFSI suggests that you seek independent advice before you submit a report, to understand whether your disclosure would provide you with this statutory whistleblowing protection. Whilst OFSI is not able to provide legal advice around whistleblowing, below is a list of organisations who can help and may be able to support you:
- Protect - The Whistleblowing Charity (https://protect-advice.org.uk/)
- Trade bodies and unions
- ACAS (https://www.acas.org.uk/)
How OFSI helps whistleblowers

Whistleblowers can directly report wrongdoing to OFSI regarding suspected breaches of UK sanctions.

OFSI, as part of HM Treasury, has a special (‘prescribed’) role under the ERA. If a whistleblower makes a report to a prescribed person, such as OFSI, they will potentially qualify for the same employment rights as if they had made a report to their employer. If they do qualify, reporting to the employer directly is not required.

To qualify for these rights, as well as meeting the criteria found on GOV.UK (http://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing), the worker must have a reasonable belief that:
- the matter being reported falls within the remit of the prescribed person as described in the second column of the Schedule to the Prescribed Persons Order headed ‘Description of matters’. Find out more (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2418/schedule/made)
- the information reported, and any allegation contained within that information, is substantially true.
- that it is in the public interest to report the allegation.
the information reported tends to show that:

a) that a criminal offence has been committed, is being committed or is likely to be committed,

b) that a person has failed, is failing or is likely to fail to comply with any legal obligation to which he is subject,

c) that a miscarriage of justice has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur,

d) that the health or safety of any individual has been, is being or is likely to be endangered,

e) that the environment has been, is being or is likely to be damaged, or

f) that information tending to show any matter falling within any one of the above list a) - e) has been, is being or is likely to be deliberately concealed.

Read more about the role of ‘prescribed persons’ (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/blowing-the-whistle-list-of-prescribed-people-and-bodies--2).

Please note, OFSI does not usually comment on or participate in Tribunal proceedings brought under the ERA by those who have confidentially reported to OFSI.

Protecting your privacy

You can choose whether to provide OFSI with your true identity contact details or to remain anonymous. Before making that decision, please read the guidance below.

All communication using the internet involves risk. There are steps that can be taken to reduce the level of risk, some of which are detailed below:
- Creating a free new email address which you can use to submit the confidential report and for us to reply to. Do not use a name, phone number or other data linked to your real identity when creating this account.
- Using the TOR browser or a virtual private network (VPN) to increase your privacy.
- Using a device which is not registered to you.
- Ensuring your internet browser is updated.
Making a report by email

If you wish to make a confidential report via email, please ensure you have read the guidance above and consider whether you may wish to use any of the steps above to mitigate the risk when communicating via the internet. Once you have decided how you will communicate with OFSI, send an email to the address below and include the following information:

A description of the suspected wrongdoing.

-Please include time, dates, and locations of wrongdoing if known.

A description of who is involved.

-Please include the full names of the firms and/or individuals involved, if known.
- An indication of how long this has been going on.
- You can attach any support documents or evidence to the email or indicate within the email that you have documents or evidence to share with OFSI.
- A description of how you know this information, and if possible, who else may know this information.
- How OFSI can safely contact you.
The dedicated email address is: xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)