Our data shows the number of new whistleblowing reports we received between October and December 2022 and how the information was received.
We assess every whistleblowing case we receive that falls within our remit, to inform our work and help us identify actual or potential harm. This could be harm to consumers, to markets, to the UK economy or to wider society.
What we can share
We know that greater transparency about the whistleblowing reports we receive is important and we are constantly striving to improve the information we make public.
However, our casework with firms will usually involve confidential information for the purposes of section 348 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). So, we are unlikely to be able to provide more information about particular cases.
Find out more about the information we can share.
Whistleblowing reports
Our Whistleblowing team receives reports by telephone, email, our online reporting form, and post. In 2022 Q4 (October – December), we received 276 new whistleblowing reports. For the same period 2021 the team received 279 reports.
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Figure 1 shows that we received most of the new reports in 2022 Q4 via the online reporting form.
Whistleblowing contact details
Protecting the identities of the whistleblowers who contact us is vital. We understand individuals may be hesitant to share their personal information with us when making a disclosure.
It is helpful when whistleblowers provide us with an ongoing contact option such as a phone number and/or email address. This allows us to re-engage and develop on disclosures and ask further questions. We can also keep individuals informed on how we can protect their identity whilst we carry out our work.
Our Whistleblowing team reviews all reports to make sure we manage information from whistleblowers appropriately. We will redirect any information we get from consumers or firms to other relevant teams to consider, such as our Supervision Hub.
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Figure 2 shows that in most of the reports we received in 2022 Q4, whistleblowers provided us with their contact details.
Whistleblowing allegations
Every report we receive will contain one or more allegations of wrongdoing. We received 276 reports in this quarter, containing 785 allegations in total.
Typically, the reports we receive will contain allegations that fall under the following 5 overarching themes:
- fitness and propriety
- treating customers fairly
- FSMA
- culture
- compliance
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In Figure 3 we list the top 10 allegations made in whistleblowing reports in this period.
Since 2017, Prescribed Persons are obliged to provide annual data about the disclosures they have received and to set out what they have done to review them. We have so far provided this data in the FCA Annual Report and Accounts.
This July, we intend to publish this information in a standalone Prescribed Person report. This report will contain further detail on our handling of disclosures.
Copyright
The data on this page is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence.