Reports about sexual and non-financial misconduct made to the FCA

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to know: 

1.    How many sexual misconduct reports or complaints have been made to the FCA by FCA-regulated firms.
2.    How many sexual misconduct reports or complaints have been made to the FCA by individuals at FCA registered businesses.
3.    How many of these reports led to FCA investigation and enforcement.
4.    How many sexual discrimination reports or complaints have been made to the FCA by FCA-regulated firms.
5.    How many sexual discrimination reports or complaints have made to the FCA by individuals at FCA registered businesses?
6.    How many of these reports led to FCA investigation and enforcement.

I would like the data broken down by quarter for the last five years, using the most recent quarter end date that if possible.

Request 2:

1.    How many non-financial misconduct reports or complaints have been made to the FCA by FCA-regulated firms.
2.    How many of these reports led to FCA investigation and enforcement.
3.    How many non-financial misconduct reports or complaints have been made to the FCA by individuals at FCA registered businesses.
4.    How many of these reports led to FCA investigation and enforcement. 
5.    How many racial discrimination reports or complaints have been made to the FCA by individuals at FCA registered businesses?
6.    I would like the data broken down by quarter for the last five years, using the most recent quarter end date that if possible.

I would like the data broken down by quarter for the last five years, using the most recent quarter end date that if possible.

Email dated 26 April 2021

When it comes to non-financial misconduct, in this speech it is described as: [disclosures] "not just involving issues around gender, but also racism, physical bullying and homophobia" in this speech.

I am mainly interested in sexual harassment and sexual discrimination (separately if possible) and racism and racial discrimination.

However, if it was also possible to search whether there have been disclosures of physical bullying and homophobia (and if any led to enforcement), that would be much appreciated as well.

When it comes to non-financial misconduct, in this speech it is described as: [disclosures] "not just involving issues around gender, but also racism, physical bullying and homophobia" in this speech.

I am mainly interested in sexual harassment and sexual discrimination (separately if possible) and racism and racial discrimination.

However, if it was also possible to search whether there have been disclosures of physical bullying and homophobia (and if any led to enforcement), that would be much appreciated as well.

Thank you for your emails of 24 March and 26 April 2021, in which you have asked about the number of reports or complaints the FCA has received from either FCA-regulated firms or individuals at FCA-registered businesses that relate to sexual misconduct/discrimination or non-financial misconduct. Please see Annex A for full details of your request.

We have processed your emails in line with the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and our response is set out below. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding.

We wrote to you on 23 April 2021 to explain that we do not aggregate any of the reports we receive under the term ‘non-financial misconduct’ and therefore, to determine if we held any information relevant to this point of your request, we would have to complete ‘key word’ based searches which include terms such as ‘sex’, ‘misconduct’, ‘discriminate’, ‘discriminated’, ‘race’, ‘racial’, etc. You confirmed on 18 June 2021 that you would also like us to search for additional terms of ‘sexual’, ’sexism’ and ‘discrimination’.

The information contained in the attached Annex C includes any reports received by the FCA from an individual employee or made on behalf of the firm to the relevant supervisory contact and which refer to the keywords listed above. 
 
When reviewing the data please note that there might be some duplication in this list. For example, a case might mention both sex and discrimination and so might appear twice. We have included a list of which cases contain which word in the attached to allow you to identify them. We can neither confirm nor deny whether we have taken, or are taking, any enforcement action following any of the reports included in annex C.
 
This is because we are of the view that such confirmation or denial would, or would be likely to, prejudice the exercise by the FCA of its regulatory functions under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). Therefore, we consider that section 31 (Law enforcement) of FOIA applies.  

For a detailed explanation of the factors for and against confirming or denying whether we hold the information, please see Annex B.
We can, however, confirm that in the past we have taken action to prohibit certain individuals from working in the financial industry, following findings that they are not fit and proper. Each of them had been convicted of serious non-financial indictable offences while working in financial services. This information is in the public domain and the details of these actions can be found below:

*Please note that Mr Frensham referred the Decision Notice against him to the Upper Tribunal. In its judgement of 31 August 2021, the Tribunal confirmed the FCA’s decision and Mr Frensham’s reference was dismissed. The FCA will be publishing the Final Notice against Mr Frensham in due course.