FCA receives 300 new whistleblowing reports in Q2 2023
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has posted the whistleblowing data for the period between April and June 2023.
In 2023 Q2 (April – June), the FCA received 300 new whistleblowing reports. For the same period 2022 the team received 243 reports. In 2023 Q1 (January – March), the FCA received 280 new whistleblowing reports.
Whistleblowers are protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA), which means that you may obtain a remedy if you are hurt, suffer detriment or are dismissed because you have blown the whistle in the public interest. This is enforceable through an Employment Tribunal.
PIDA was introduced to encourage and give workers the legal support to speak up if they have concerns about wrongdoing in their workplace.
It makes provision about the subject matter of the disclosure, the motivation and beliefs of the worker, and the person(s) to whom the disclosure is made.
Whistleblowers can directly report wrongdoing to the FCA. The regulator has a special (‘prescribed’) role under PIDA. Under PIDA, if a whistleblower makes a report to a prescribed person, such as the FCA, they will potentially qualify for the same employment rights as if they had made a report to their employer. If they do qualify, reporting to the employer directly is not required.
Since leaving the EU, the relevant regulatory responsibilities of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) have been assigned to the FCA. This means that the FCA can accept whistleblower disclosures about possible breaches of UK Securitisation Regulation, UK Securities Financing Transactions Regulation and the UK Credit Rating Agencies Regulation.