On 6 July 2023, the Bank of England (BoE) published its latest annual report on the Prescribed Persons (Reports on Disclosures of Information) Regulations 2017.
The BoE, of which the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) forms a part, are both Prescribed Persons, as defined by Parliament under the Public Interest Disclosures (Prescribed Persons) Order 2014. The role of a Prescribed Person is to provide workers with an opportunity to make their public interest disclosure to a regulator, rather than their employer.
Since 2017, all ‘Prescribed Persons’ are required to report in writing, annually, on workers (whistleblowing) disclosures they have received. This report covers the period 1 April 2022, to 31 March 2023.
The report sets forth the following information:
- A total number of 197 disclosures have been subject to assessment against the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and discrete statutory requirements of the BoE and the PRA, to assess whether they are protected disclosures.
- The regulators reasonably believe that 189 disclosures were protected disclosures within section 43B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and subject to the BoE and PRA’s role as Prescribed Persons. The remaining eight disclosures were not protected disclosures.
- Of the 189 protected disclosures that were subject to supervisory consideration: three disclosures contributed to significant regulatory or supervisory activity; nine disclosures provided intelligence, which were of prudential value; 107 disclosures provided intelligence, which was retained for future reference but not currently actionable; and a further 70 disclosures are currently subject to ongoing supervisory assessment.
