Tribunals
Published: 13 September 2023
13 minute read
Overview
On 17 June 2016, the FRC became the 'competent authority' for audit in the UK[1]. We now enforce Audit requirements under the Accountancy and Actuarial Schemes (Schemes).
The AEP has an early administrative stage which provides opportunities to dispose of an enforcement matter without necessarily needing to go to a FRC Tribunal hearing – although that option is always available. The Schemes do not contain those initial (executive and committee) stages before a Tribunal hearing although settlement discussions can be entered into at any stage.
The FRC Tribunals which apply the AEP and the Schemes are composed of either three or five individuals drawn from a Panel of Tribunal members. Tribunals will always include a majority of non-accountants or actuaries. The Chair of every Tribunal will be a qualified lawyer of suitable experience. Every three person Tribunal will also include an accountant or actuary and a lay person. Every five person Tribunal will include at least one, but no more than two, accountants or actuaries, a lay person and a further lay or legally qualified person. To ensure their independence no member of a Tribunal may be an officer or employee of any of the professional bodies or of the FRC.
Tribunal hearings are normally be open to the public except in exceptional circumstances where the Tribunal decides that this would not be in the interests of justice. Normally, if the case is contested, the Tribunal will be presented with evidence in the case. Witnesses may be called and asked to give oral evidence. They may be cross-examined.
Tribunal hearings are similar to hearings in court but less formal and the Tribunal will not be subject to the same restrictions as a court might be in accepting evidence. The individual or firm against whom the complaint has been brought is entitled to attend and be legally represented at all hearings and will have the opportunity to defend any allegations made against them, to present evidence and to challenge evidence against them.
If the Tribunal makes an adverse finding, it can impose a number of sanctions or combination of sanctions, depending on the applicable procedure. The available sanctions are listed in the AEP and in an Appendix at the back of the Schemes. It can also order the individual or firm to pay all or part of the costs of the investigation and hearing. If the Tribunal dismisses the matter, it can order the FRC to pay all or part of the legal costs of the individual or firm concerned if it is satisfied that the FRC behaved unreasonably in bringing or pursuing the matter.
FRC Tribunals cannot order compensation to be paid to victims of the misconduct.
Appeals
A respondent can seek leave to appeal against an adverse finding and/or order imposed by the Tribunal on certain grounds. If leave to appeal is granted, the Convener will appoint an Appeal Tribunal. Appeal Tribunals are constituted in the same way and subject to the same restrictions as Tribunals. An appeal is a review and not a rehearing.
Appointments to the Tribunal Panels
Appointments to the Tribunal Panels are made by the independent Appointments Committee.
Tribunal Panel members
The Hon Lady Wolffe
Legal Chair
Sarah P L Wolffe, KC (The Hon Lady Wolffe), is a Professor and Honorary Professor, respectively, of the Law Schools of Strathclyde University and Edinburgh University. Her areas of research and teaching include commercial and insolvency law, and civil justice.
Immediately prior to assuming these professorships (November 2021), Sarah sat as a Commercial Judge in the Court of Session, the first woman to be so appointed; presiding in that capacity in 2016 to 2017 and 2018 to 2021. She was appointed to the Court of Session, Scotland’s Supreme Courts, in 2014.
Other current appointments include: General Council Assessor on the Court of Edinburgh University; President of the Stair Society (promoting the study of Scottish legal history); Honorary Chair of the Edinburgh Centre for Commercial Law; Member of the Advisory Board for Women in Law (University of Edinburgh); and member of the Executive of the Conference on European Restructuring and Insolvency Law (CERIL).
Sarah was called to the Scottish Bar in 1994; appointed a standing junior to the DTI (and successors) in 1996; took silk in 2008 and was a founding member of Axiom Advocates, practising principally in Commercial and Public law.
She contributed to or was theScottish editor of several editions of MacGillivray on Insurance Law (including the 15th ed) and of Director’s Disqualification. She was one of the UK members on the Expert Group on professional indemnity insurance of the CCBE (Council of European Bars and Law Societies).Prior to judicial appointment, Sarah was Chancellor to the Bishops (of two dioceses) in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Sarah was born in the United States. Her first degree was from Dartmouth College (graduating Summa cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa). Following post-graduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, she graduated from Edinburgh University LLB with Distinction. She is a trained mediator.
Sir Kenneth Parker
Legal Chair
Sir Kenneth Parker is a retired High Court Judge, Queen's Bench Division. He was educated at Kettering Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford (classical scholarship), where he obtained first class honours in Literae Humaniores and the BCL (Vinerian Scholar). In 1973 he became a Fellow of his College and University Lecturer in Law. He began practice at the bar in 1977 at Monckton Chambers, where he specialised in competition and regulatory law, increasingly with an EU dimension. Many of his cases involved complex issues of economics and accounting. He became a KC in 1992, and developed a broader practice involving public law, including many appearances on behalf of the UK in the ECJ in Luxembourg. In 2002 he became joint head of Monckton Chambers. In 1997 he became a Recorder and a Member of the Information Tribunal for national security appeals; and in 2006 a Law Commissioner (public law) and a deputy High Court Judge. In 2009 he was appointed to the High Court Bench and knighted. As a judge in the Administrative Court he frequently heard claims that raised important financial or regulatory issues. He retired from the High Court at the end of 2015. He is a Master of the Bench of Gray's Inn.
Adrian Jack
Legal Chair
Adrian Jack was born and largely brought up in Australia, where he was an open scholar at the Sydney Grammar School. After studying law at Hertford College, Oxford, he was in 1986 called to the bar by the Middle Temple, where he was elected a bencher in 2016. He started his practice in common law chambers in the Temple where he did both criminal and civil cases. He developed a speciality in professional negligence and moved to Chancery/commercial chambers in Lincoln’s Inn in 1998. In 2000 he was admitted to the German bar and subsequently appeared in many cross-border commercial cases.
He left the bar in 2014 for a full-time post as a justice of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar, where he had responsibility for the civil and commercial list, until the expiry of his contract in 2017. In 2019 he was admitted to the bar of the Turks and Caicos Islands, where he practised briefly, before being appointed that year as a full-time justice of the Commercial Division of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the British Virgin Islands.
His contract as a BVI Commercial Court judge ends this year. He will resume sitting in England and Wales in his capacity as a recorder of the Crown Court, with authorisation to sit as a High Court judge, and as a tribunal judge.
Nicholas Stewart KC
Legal Chair
Nicholas Stewart practised as a barrister at the Chancery Bar from 1972 to 2022 and now works as an independent arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator in commercial and sports matters and on various disciplinary tribunals.
He has been an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne, since 2015, is a member of the World Rugby Anti-Doping Judicial Panel and is an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Leicester.
Nicholas was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1987 and was a Deputy High Court Judge in the Chancery Division from 1991 to 2022. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a CEDR accredited mediator and has a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants.
He won an open exhibition to Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and also has a BA (1st class honours) in German and Spanish awarded in 2015 by Birkbeck, University of London.
Nicholas is a bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple and was President of the Union Internationale des Avocats 2001-2. He chaired the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales 1994-98 and has been on trial observations and human rights missions in Colombia, Croatia, Guatemala, Mexico and Turkey. From 2008 to 2016 he was chair of the Dialogue Advisory Group, Amsterdam, a leading international group facilitating dialogue in armed and other serious international conflicts; and from 2003 to 2006 was on the President’s Advisory Panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
His publications include Stewart, Campbell & Baughen: The Law of Unincorporated Associations (Oxford University Press, 2011) and a contribution of precedents to the leading German sports law book Beck’sches Formularbuch: Sportrecht (C.H. Beck, Munich, 2021).
Peter Susman KC
Legal Chair
Peter Susman practises as a KC from Henderson Chambers, now specialising in IT, commercial and property litigation. He was educated at Dulwich College; Lincoln College, Oxford (where as Oldfield Law Scholar he read law); and the University of Chicago Law School (British Commonwealth Fellow and Fulbright Scholar). He was for 18 months an associate corporate lawyer with a leading New York City law firm. For over 25 years he was a Recorder, sitting in the County Court, Crown Court and the Technology and Construction Court; for 9 years sat as Vice-Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales; for 5 years chaired the Bar’s IT Panel; and in Ofcom’s initial 2 years was standing counsel to that regulator. He acts as arbitrator and mediator, particularly in IT disputes. He is a Bencher of Middle Temple, and was for 6 years Master of its Library.
He is an Honorary Member of the E. Robert Williams American Inn of Court, Jacksonville, and of the Tampa Bay American Inn of Court, each in Florida, USA.
Graham McGregor
Accountant member
Graham McGregor is a former partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and its predecessor firms, where he worked for 38 years, 28 of them as an audit partner, in Scotland, London and Canada. Graham held several senior positions within PricewaterhouseCoopers, leading several assurance business units within the firm. He was senior audit partner with responsibility for a number of large listed companies. He retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers in June 2016. Graham has been chair of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland's (ICAS) Audit and Assurance Committee and a member of the ICAS Technical Committee. He has been a member of the FRC Enforcement Panel since 2019. Graham is a Chartered Accountant, a member of both ICAS and the Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada. He has a degree in Accountancy from the University of Glasgow.
Rowena Everson
Accountant member
Rowena has operated as a CEO, CFO and COO in a broad career covering 25 years in banking and FSIs, working in Singapore, Hong Kong, Manila, Warsaw and London. She is a transformational change expert and is currently the Head of Digital Channels & Data Analytics for the Europe-Americas region at Standard Chartered Bank.
As the founding CEO of Stanchart’s newest subsidiary in Poland, she established Eastern Europe’s premier cyber security centre of excellence as well as the entire physical and operational infrastructure and a highly tuned branding program. She remains Board Chair of the subsidiary.
Rowena is an accomplished FSI Communications professional, having worked in the B2B marketing sector across Asia and is accredited with certification from the London School of Journalism.
As a chartered accountant, ACA (ICAEW), Rowena specialised in banking, insurance and pensions. While living in Singapore, Rowena was a founder member of the ICAEW Singapore City Group – a not for profit local association to promote educational and professional networking opportunities. She also served on the ICAEW UK Financial Services Risk and Regulatory Committee.
Mark Williams
Accountant member
Mark, most recently Group Finance Director of AIM listed Watchstone Group plc, is an FCA member of the ICAEW and has over 30 years of experience in practice and business. Qualifying with Deloitte (Touche Ross & Co as it then was) he spent over 10 years primarily in their Audit practice including spending time in the technical review team.
Since leaving practice Mark has approximately 15 years experience in Financial Services businesses. Mark has held a variety of roles in listed groups; including head office and subsidiary positions within Finance and Internal audit. He was a founding executive of a successful technology enabled Financial Services start up. He has participated in: M&A, business integrations and held numerous positions within regulated businesses including resolving issues within those under regulatory scrutiny.
In Watchstone, Mark was the Executive Finance lead for the successful turnaround and restructuring of a once troubled business; involving intense Financial Reporting, Regulatory and legal issues and corporate restructuring including business disposals.
Mark is NED and Vice Chair of Horizons Education Trust, a multi academy trust operating special schools in the East of England.
Kathryn Morgan
Actuarial member
Kathryn has worked in insurance for over 35 years, predominantly in general insurance. She qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1990. She has worked in insurance companies, a consultancy, and as a regulator in both the UK and Gibraltar. She was elected as a member of the Council of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in 2013 and prior to that was on the Board of the Casualty Actuarial Society in the US.
She is a member of the Board of Soteria Insurance Limited where she chairs the Audit Committee, and also sits on the Board of Soteria Finance Holding Company. She is also on the Board of Marshmallow Insurance Limited, where she chairs the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee. Recently, Kathryn was appointed to the Board of UIA Insurance where she chairs the Audit Committee.
Kathryn has led on, and contributed to, several research papers on insurance and risk and is the recipient of an outstanding contribution award from the UK actuarial profession.
Alastair Clarkson
Actuarial member
Alastair graduated from the University of Cambridge with an Honours degree in Natural Sciences before qualifying as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries in 1993. He has over 30 years’ experience in the life insurance industry, initially with Scottish Provident before moving to Standard Life in 2002. Throughout his career he has specialised in financial risk and capital management and the independent review and challenge of actuarial recommendations. More recently he has been involved in the development and review of corporate strategy in the UK and internationally.
Alastair has previously sat on the Council of the Faculty of Actuaries, is a past member of the Life Supervision Committee, a past chair of the Life Research Committee and a past chair of the Life Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He has previously been the principal examiner on life insurance for the actuarial profession and is a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary.
Andrew Kerr
Actuarial member
Andrew has over 40 years’ experience of working in the insurance sector, qualifying as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1987. The course of his career, Andrew has worked in a wide variety of senior management roles, both in blue chip insurers and at leading professional services firms. Latterly, Andrew worked in risk management at Phoenix Group providing independent review and challenge to business decisions. This included being the risk management lead on climate change matters, notably the 2022 stress testing submissions to the Bank of England.
Andrew is Trustee and Treasurer at Platform for Life, a mental health charity based in the North-West. He is also an NED at Cheshire Football Centre, a vehicle established to develop a major regional sports facility, where he chairs the Audit & Risk Committee. In addition, Andrew is a volunteer advisor at the Pensions Ombudsman dealing with early dispute resolution.
Mark Stamper
Actuarial member
Mark has over 25 years’ experience in the life and health insurance industry, and has held Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Chief Actuary roles. He qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1998 and has an MA in mathematics from the University of Oxford. He completed the Financial Times Non-Executive Director Diploma in 2021.
Mark was based in Hong Kong from 2003 to 2021 and has worked at local, regional and global levels. He has worked extensively across the Asia-Pacific region and also has experience in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and US.
He has served on the boards of joint venture insurance businesses in China and Turkey, including chairing an audit committee, and is currently on the board (and was previously Chair) of Splash Foundation Ltd, a non-profit organisation that teaches swimming to underprivileged children and adults in Hong Kong.
Manu Duggal
Lay Member
Manu Duggal started his working life in investment banking, holding senior roles for fifteen years at global firms such as Lazard and Swiss Bank Corporation (UBS) in capital markets, corporate finance, derivatives, and arbitrage. He has many years of experience in regulatory adjudication including as a Lay Member of the Charity Tribunal hearing first instance appeals against decisions of the Charity Commission (the regulator) and also in ADR through managing complex and lengthy inter-governmental private arbitrations as party adviser. He is a Non-executive Director at a mid-size, trust company operating in a highly regulated industry overseeing over £1bn in assets held under several hundred trusts and corporate vehicles. He has a consultancy practice assisting clients with complex multi-disciplinary problems involving finance, risk management and disputes. He has been sitting as a magistrate in central London for 15 years. He was previously on the Finance Committee of Justice, a leading law reform and human rights charity, and Trustee of LEAP, a project to help less-advantaged, unemployed people from West London into employment. He holds degrees in Physics, Law (LLM) and an MBA.
Chris Taylor
Lay member
After graduating in Social Sciences from the University of Leicester, he commenced a long career within the Banking industry, working within a wide variety of institutions in London, the provinces and travelling extensively overseas. He qualified professionally as both a Banker and as a Human Resource Management specialist gaining wide experience in recruitment at all levels, employment law and has handled many disciplinary and inadequate performance situations at both junior and very senior level.
Upon the passing of the original Financial Services Act, Chris became one of the earliest Regulatory Compliance specialists ending up as Deputy Global Head of Compliance for NatWest Group.
Since retiring from full time employment he has acted as a Magistrate for ten years. As a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Savings and Investment, he was invited to become the inaugural Chair of the CISI Disciplinary Panel upon which he continues to sit and for five years acted as an “Independent Person” upon the Corporation of London Standards Committee which conducted disciplinary hearings into cases of alleged breaches of applicable standards by Councillors and other employees of the Corporation.
He has held several and continues to hold one Bank Non-Executive Directorship where he chairs the Board Risk and Compliance Committee and sits as a member of both the Board Audit and Remuneration Committees.
Emily Knapp
Lay Member
Emily Knapp is a practicing dentist who has spent most of her career working with adults and children with additional needs. She currently combines clinical dentistry with being the Clinical Dento-Legal Advisor for the Portman Dental Care, advising on matters of law, regulation and ethics.
She is a Fitness to Practise Chair for the General Dental Council, hearing professional misconduct, performance and health cases for dentists and dental care professionals. She serves as an External Clinical Advisor for the NHS Ombudsman. She is a Trustee for the Kernos Centre, a mental health charity based in Sudbury, Suffolk, which makes counselling accessible to anyone who needs it, with no financial restraints or restrictions on the number of sessions.
Emily holds degrees in Dentistry and History, and postgraduate qualifications in Dental Sedation and Dental Law and Ethics. She is currently working on a Post-graduate Diploma in Law.
Georgina Philippou
Lay Member
Georgina began her career at the Securities and Investments Board, one of the Financial Conduct Authority’s predecessor organisations, specialising in investigations, particularly of unauthorised business. Georgina has extensive enforcement experience across all areas of financial services including dispute resolution through settlement and mediation,
involving a range of financial services firms.
Georgina was Chief Operating Officer of the FCA between November 2015 and January 2021, having been Acting Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight, and prior to that Director of Strategy and Delivery in the Enforcement and Financial Crime Division. She was the FCA’s Senior Adviser on the Public Sector Equality Duty from January 2021 to September 2022, driving the publication of the FCA’s Discussion Paper on D&I in the financial services sector.
Georgina chaired the International Organisation of Securities Commissions' (IOSCO)
Committee on Enforcement and the Exchange of Information and its Screening
Group, which assesses applications to sign the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU) between 2008 and 2016.
Georgina was a member of the City of London Social Mobility Task Force which set up the new membership body, Progress Together, in January 2023. Georgina chaired the Stratford Arts Trust, which delivered an inclusive and accessible arts programme to East London and beyond, between 2019 and 2021.
Georgina now has a portfolio career across many aspects of financial services regulation.
Georgina is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
Footnotes
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[1]
Under the EU Audit Regulation and the Statutory Auditor and Third Country Auditor Regulations 2016 (implementing the EU Statutory Audit Directive 2014).