Information on investigations into company directors - July 2021

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to know:
1) How many investigations did the FCA launch into company directors.
2) A breakdown of the types of investigations launched, using whichever categories are used internally.

I would like the data for each question for each of the last 5 years, with the year ending on March 31st, or whichever year end is most convenient. If this is not possible, please could I have the data for each question for each of the last 3 years, with the year ending on March 31st.

We believe the requested information for calendar years 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and 2019 is already easily available to you from our Disclosure Log[1]. The data was disclosed in our FOIA responses previously issued under reference FOI5640[2], FOI6306[3] and FOI7364[4]. For that reason, we are exempted from having to disclose it to you again under section 21 (Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means) of FOIA.  For more information on why we are applying this exemption please see table below.

With regard to calendar years 2020 and 2021, we can confirm that the FCA opened 17 enforcement investigations into company directors in 2020 and 6 in 2021.

Please note, we have taken ’company directors’ to mean those individuals who have held CF1 (Director) or CF2 (Non-Executive Director) functions at any point; they may not have held those functions at the time of the investigated misconduct. Data is for responsive cases opened in 2020 and 2021 (up to 28 June 2021).

The table below shows the breakdown of the types of investigations launched that we can disclose for 2020 and 2021. Please also note, however, that the way the information is aggregated changed in late 2018, and our internal categories are slightly different and more granular than those reported in our previous FOIA responses. For this reason, we are unable to disclose any figures lower than three, as we are of the view that disclosure of such granular details would be likely prejudice the exercise by the FCA of its functions under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). Therefore, we consider that section 31 of FOIA (Law enforcement) applies. 

In addition, the information you requested, if disclosed, could allow the identification of specific individuals. Therefore, we are exempted from disclosing that information under section 40 (Personal data) of FOIA as it relates to the personal information of the individuals concerned.

For more information on why we are applying these exemptions please see below table

*Data is correct as at 28/06/2021