Data on whistleblowing disclosures received by the FCA - December 2021


Reference Case Number: FOI8827

Freedom of Information: Right to know request:

  1. 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

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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.
     

  2. 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.