Information on Whistleblowing - December 2022

FOI Release Date of Release:

Reference Case Number: FOI9770

Freedom of Information: Right to know request:

  1. I would like to request the total number of whistleblowing reports the FCA has received since its inception which are still under assessment.
  2. In addition to this information and insofar as it does not affect the first part of my request, I would also like the number of reports still under assessment broken down by year, i.e. I would like to know how many of the reports were submitted in 2022, how many in 2021, etc. for the full period going back to 2013.

FCA response:

We can confirm that 1578 whistleblowing cases remain under assessment. This means that work is ongoing to review the case, investigate it, or bring the resulting actions to a close. Actions that could be ongoing while a case remains open include:

  • requesting firms' processes and procedures for the purposes of a desk-based review;
  • firm visits and discussions;
  • setting out required actions of a specific Senior Management Function;
  • commissioning a Skilled Persons review under section 166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FMSA);
  • removal of or changes to a firm’s permission or an individual’s approval; or
  • Enforcement action (depending on the seriousness of the findings from the work undertaken).

Completion of a case may depend on a firm concluding actions we have required of it. In some cases, the whistleblower’s report will be combined with other strands of information to inform a wider review of an issue or will sometimes be part of a bigger investigation. Protecting the identity or presence of a whistleblower will, in addition, often necessitate an indirect investigative approach. All these factors can slow the process of completing a case.

Broken down by year in which the whistleblowing cases were created, the 1578 cases under assessment are distributed as follows:

  • 2013 – 0
  • 2014 – 0
  • 2015 – 0
  • 2016 – 1
  • 2017 – 48
  • 2018 – 83
  • 2019 – 134
  • 2020 – 236
  • 2021 – 382
  • 2022 – 694

Please note that the above figures may include some cases which have been closed but have not yet had their status amended on our systems.