5A. (1) Without prejudice to the provisions of any other enactment relating to anonymous reporting of wrongdoing, nothing in this Act shall oblige any person to accept and follow-up on anonymous reports made in the manner specified in section 6 but a person may, if he or she considers it appropriate to do so, follow-up on a matter the subject of an anonymous report.

(2) A worker who makes a disclosure in the manner specified under section 6, 7, F22[7B,] 8, 9 or 10 by way of an anonymous report and who is subsequently identified and penalised for having made the disclosure shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as having made a protected disclosure and shall be entitled to the same protections under Part 3 as a worker who has been penalised for having made a protected disclosure.]