We are reporting on the whistleblowing disclosures made to us under the Prescribed Persons Regulations 2017, covering April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
We regulate the conduct of nearly 45,000 businesses in the UK, prudentially supervise around 44,000 firms and set specific standards for around 17,000 firms. Our operational objectives are to:
- protect consumers from bad conduct
- protect the integrity of the UK financial system
- promote effective competition in the interests of consumers
Since 2023, the FCA has had a secondary objective to facilitate the international competitiveness and growth of the UK economy in the medium to long term (subject to alignment with international standards).
Under Regulation 3 of the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017, each relevant Prescribed Person must report annually in writing on the workers’ disclosures (whistleblowing disclosures) it has received. The FCA is a Prescribed Person under the Regulations, and this report meets this obligation. It covers disclosures for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
We are able to accept and, if we consider it appropriate, act on disclosures we receive about matters within our remit[1]. The Department for Business and Trade’s Whistleblowing webpages gives a full list[2] of these matters.
Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), a worker who makes a disclosure of information about certain types of wrongdoing to an employer, legal adviser or other responsible or Prescribed Person, can bring a claim for unfair dismissal or detriment to the Employment Tribunal if they believe this was a result of their whistleblowing.
However, this protection only applies if the person making the disclosure reasonably believes that:
- they are acting in the public interest, which means that protection is not normally given for personal grievances
- the disclosure tends to show any of the following, or a risk it might happen:
- a criminal offence (for example, fraud)
- health and safety risk
- damage to the environment
- miscarriage of justice
- breach of the law (this might be, for example, because the firm has not bought mandatory insurance); or concealing wrongdoing
A worker can make a disclosure to their employer or to a Prescribed Person. They might tell the Prescribed Person if they feel they can’t disclose directly to their employer, or if they have done so, but do not believe their employer has acted appropriately to address it.
Prescribed Persons with investigatory and regulatory functions, such as the FCA, can consider acting on the information that has been disclosed to them. The Government guidance[3] for Prescribed Persons gives further details of their responsibilities.
To encourage whistleblower confidence, we have a broad approach to the reports we accept and review. This means we review some reports which may not be ‘qualifying disclosures’ as defined by PIDA.
We have included all the reports we reviewed in accordance with our whistleblowing process.
This report does not include any information which would enable either whistleblowers or the subjects of their reports to be identified.
1. Whistleblowing reports
Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, we received and assessed 1,124 new whistleblower reports.
The number of reports has increased slightly over recent years (2020-21: 1,046, 2021-22: 1,041, 2022-23: 1,086).
We receive reports from whistleblowers via several channels, including webform[4] (online reporting), email, telephone and by letter. The webform has become the most popular reporting channel since we introduced it in 2021.
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Data table
While we try to investigate and complete our reviews as quickly as possible, some will take more time than others. This is particularly the case with reviews that lead to or support more serious action being taken.
We aim to be more transparent about the action we are taking as a result of whistleblower reports, and to show how valuable these reports are in enabling us to take action.
We previously only reported on the actions we took as a result of whistleblowing reports received within the reporting period. This meant we did not report on actions taken on reports received in preceding reporting periods.
We believe it is important to capture the impact of all whistleblowing reports whose reviews have been completed, regardless of when we received them.
So, in this year’s report, Table 1 below also shows the action we have taken on all 1,043 reviews concluded during the reporting period.
Overall, 52% of all reviews concluded within this reporting period resulted in direct action.
Table 1: FCA responses to whistleblowing reports
|
FCA response |
Action on reports received only during the reporting period |
All action taken this reporting period (including those in column immediately left) |
Examples/details of response |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Significant action to manage harm |
2 |
61 (5.8%) |
Enforcement action, a s166 Skilled Person’s Report, or restricting a firm’s permissions or an individual’s approval. |
|
Action to reduce harm |
55 |
486 (46.6%) |
Writing to or visiting a firm, asking it for information, or asking it to attest to compliance with our rules. |
|
Report informed our work |
127 |
409 (39.2%) |
Includes harm prevention – but we did not take direct action. |
|
Recorded for future reference only |
22 |
66 (6.3%) |
These reports did not indicate harm. |
|
Other |
18 |
21 (2%) |
|
(Source: FCA whistleblowing data)
A whistleblower can choose to remain anonymous when making a report. We want whistleblowers to feel comfortable so they can provide relevant and sufficient information to help our review of their concerns. However, it is helpful when whistleblowers give us their contact details so we can work with them to develop their initial reports during the review process.
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Data table
2. Whistleblowing allegations
Every report we receive will contain one or more allegations of wrongdoing. The 1,124 reports received during the 2023/24 reporting period resulted in 3,094 separate allegations. These allegations covered a wide range of subjects, but Figure 3 shows the top 10 subjects for allegations:
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Data table
3. Our approach to whistleblowing
Whistleblowing reports are vital sources of information for us, giving us unique insights into the sectors and firms we regulate and helping us protect consumers. Our approach to whistleblowing aims to support and encourage whistleblowers in several ways:
- Our dedicated Whistleblowing team engages with whistleblowers. The team ensures reports are recorded and reach the right part of the FCA for assessment and consideration for further action.
- The Whistleblowing team maintains contact with whistleblowers throughout the review of their reports, when requested.
- We assess reports on their merits, deciding on action based on the content of the reports and other available information.
- When whistleblowers request it and we can contact them, we provide feedback on the outcome of the reviews of their reports.
- We accept reports from individuals with a demonstrable need for the confidentiality of our whistleblowing channel, as well as from ‘workers’ or ‘former workers’ protected by PIDA.
- We have published rules and guidance[5] for regulated firms on their own internal whistleblowing arrangements.
We enter whistleblowing reports into our secure intelligence systems and anonymise them to protect the presence and identity of whistleblowers.
All reports are reviewed by the appropriate teams within the FCA.
Sometimes we cannot act or respond directly to a whistleblowing report. This could be because we are given insufficient information or our review does not identify any regulatory issues. These reports can still be a valuable source of intelligence to inform our general understanding of a firm, sector or industry behaviour.
4. An update on our approach to whistleblowing
The new webform
The new webform we launched earlier this year aims to improve the quality of information from whistleblowers by asking the right questions at the start of our engagement. We hope this change will increase the likelihood that we can act on whistleblowing reports.
A more holistic review
Protecting whistleblowers’ identities remains our most important concern, as we take steps to use the whole whistleblowing data set to understand better trends and emerging issues.
5. How whistleblowers make a difference
These anonymised examples are from several FCA-regulated sectors and demonstrate the value of whistleblower contributions in our day-to-day supervisory work.
Example 1
A whistleblower reported that a firm was doing business with unregulated firms. We visited the firm to discuss these concerns. Following this visit, at our instigation, the firm agreed to cease all its business activity.
Example 2
A whistleblower raised concerns about misleading financial promotions on a firm’s website. We wrote to the firm to challenge the accuracy of these promotions. The firm then made the necessary changes to its website to comply.
Example 3
After receiving a whistleblowing disclosure, we discussed the way a firm was using its regulated activity permissions with the firm. As a result, the firm amended its permissions.