Reference Case Number: FOI8827
Freedom of Information: Right to know request:
- For each calendar year from 2014 to 2020 inclusive, could you please provide the following data:
a. Total number of whistleblowing disclosures received
b. The number which are anonymous
c. The number which disclose the identity of the person making the disclosure
- For whistleblowing reports where the identity of the person making the disclosure is given (c above), please could you provide the following data:
a. The number of reports where the person is a customer of the firm being the subject to the disclosure
b. The number of reports where the person is an employee, consultant or contractor of the firm being the subject to the disclosure
c. Others
- For whistleblowing reports where the identity of the person making the disclosure is given AND the report concerns activities of an Authorised firm, please could you provide the following data:
a. The number of reports by persons classed as Senior Managers under the SMCR arrangements, about actions of their own firm.
FCA response:
Question 1
The requested information can be found in the table below.
Year
|
Total whistleblowing disclosures received |
Anonymous reporter |
Known identity/contact details held* |
---|---|---|---|
2014 |
1324 |
460 |
864 |
2015 |
1105 |
436 |
669 |
2016 |
866 |
304 |
562 |
2017 |
1047 |
335 |
712 |
2018 |
1139 |
293 |
846 |
2019 |
1179 |
291 |
888 |
2020 |
1075 |
232 |
843 |
* These figures represent cases where contact details are available for the person reporting. This may mean that we do not know the name of the reporter, but we have the ability to contact them again (contact email or telephone number, etc.)
Question 2
- In line with the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), the FCA ordinarily defines a whistleblower as an employee or ex-employee of a financial services firm wishing to report wrongdoing within their place of employment.
Consumers or shareholders wishing to report wrongdoing by a firm are not treated as whistleblowers. They are, however, able to report their concerns through our Supervision Hub.
- Number of disclosures made by workers (where the whistleblower’s identity is known/contact details held)
The requested information can be found in the table below.
Year |
Workers (eg Employee/consultant/ contractor)* |
---|---|
2014 |
684 |
2015 |
673 |
2016 |
676 |
2017 |
620 |
2018 |
785 |
2019 |
847 |
2020 |
761 |
* We do not specifically record each employee’s working title in our case recording and have taken approach to record disclosures from ‘workers’ or ‘employees’ or ‘ex employees’ of firms.
c. All other disclosures (where the whistleblower’s identity is known/contact details held).
We have interpreted this part of your request to mean non-consumer and non-worker disclosures made by individuals that we believe do not work for the subject firm of the whistleblowing report. The requested information can be found in the table below.
Year |
All other disclosures*
|
---|---|
2014 |
374 |
2015 |
222 |
2016 |
86 |
2017 |
89 |
2018 |
100 |
2019 |
143 |
2020 |
142 |
* Examples of ‘others’ include competitors, regulated firms, relations, third parties or unknown.
Question 3
We do not record this data, so we are unable to provide you with this information.