Recommendation 36

HM Government · verbatim extract Accepted

As the Committee is aware, we recently issued a non-financial misconduct survey to wholesale firms in the insurance, insurance intermediary, banking and broking sectors. The survey covers the use of confidentiality agreements when settling complaints and requests a breakdown of data about what types of non-financial misconduct they have been used in relation to. We are currently assessing the responses to that survey and welcome an opportunity to share those findings with the TSC in the future. We may in future decide to issue similar surveys to other sectors of the industry. It is worth clarifying that confidentiality agreements cannot be used to prevent whistleblowing to the FCA only if the individual is making a protected disclosure, as defined in the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. Several elements must be satisfied for a disclosure to be protected, including the fact that whistleblowers must reasonably believe that disclosing is in the public interest. This means that a whistleblower’s concerns must affect others in order for them to be protected. The Government also recently confirmed its intent to tighten the law around the use of NDAs in relation to potentially criminal misconduct. We look forward to continuing to engage with the Committee and others on this important subject. 1 Acas, Age UK, British Chambers of Commerce, Cabinet Office, Carers UK, CBI, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Chartered Management Institute, Department for Business and Trade, Department for Work and Pensions, Department of Health and Social Care, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Federation of Small Businesses, Government Equalities Office, HM Treasury Institute of Directors, Make UK, Recruitment and Employment Confederation, Scope, Timewise, TUC, Working Families 2 Many firms are not collecting data that could help them understand what steps they may want to take to improve their diversity - The Inclusion at Work report outlines that one of the barriers, cited by firms, to doing “..the right thing” was little or no data. 3 See the Solicitors Regulation Authority Diversity in the profession page 4 The firms who are using diversity data have said that they are better able to: identify barriers that prevent the development of all available talent; win business by showing their commitment to diversity; prevent costly discrimination claims by identifying problems early and strengthen their reputation. SRA | Benefits of diversity in the profession | Solicitors Regulation Authority The SRA law firm diversity data tool can be found here SRA | Law firm diversity data tool | Solicitors Regulation Authority 5 The Flexible Working Act allows for the right to request flexible working from the first day of employment. Employees can make two rather than one request a year for flexible working; and the deadline for employers to respond to the requests has been reduced from three to two months. The Carers’ Leave Act entitles employees to take one week of unpaid leave a year if they have caring responsibilities (which include children); this is also available from the first day of employment. 6 https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/prudential-regulation/publication/2021/july/diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-financial-sector 7 HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter: Annual Review 2023 , p. 19.