ENF 17.7 Publication of disqualification

DEC 5.2 (Publication) set out certain requirements of the Act in relation to the FSA's publication by of its decisions.

Under section 347 (1)(i) of the Act (The record of authorised persons etc), the FSA must keep a record of every person falling within such class as the FSA may determine. To help it fulfil its regulatory objectives of protecting consumers and promoting public awareness, the FSA will keep on the FSA Register a record of firms and individuals who have been the subject of disqualification orders.

Once the decision to make a disqualification order has been set out in a final notice, the FSA will consider what additional information about the circumstances of the order to include on the FSA Register and will take into account any possible prejudice to the auditor or actuary concerned. In general, the FSA considers that publication of relevant information about orders to disqualify auditors or actuaries will be in the interests of firms and consumers.

Under section 347(3) of the Act, if it appears to the FSA that an entry on the public record ceases to apply to a person, it may remove the relevant entry from the record. Section 347(4) states that, if the FSA decides not to remove the entry in the record, it must make a note to that effect on the FSA Register and state why it believes the entry on the record no longer applies to the person.

While a disqualification order is effective, the FSA will keep a record of the order on the FSA Register. The FSA's policy in relation to section 347(4) of the Act is that where an application to revoke a disqualification order is granted, a note will be made on the FSA Register giving reasons for the revocation. The availability of a record of action taken by the FSA in relation to action taken against auditors and actuaries will assist the FSA in furthering its regulatory objectives, in particular, the maintenance of confidence in the financial system. For this reason, the FSA will keep the annotated record of the revoked disapplication order for a period of six years from the date of the revocation. The record will then be removed from the FSA Register.