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If your complaint is about a bank, an insurance company or a finance firm rather than one of the regulators, you should first complain to the company and then if you remain unhappy to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) update – 17 December 2024

The Commissioner’s investigation into the FCA’s handling of BSPS is ongoing and we have had a large number of complainants contact us.

During the past month, the Commissioner has held two video conference calls with BSPS complainants.  These calls were set up to allow those complainants who wished to feed in their views directly to the Commissioner to do so. We are currently in the process of reviewing the additional evidence that has been sent to us following those calls.

We have had a number of complainants raise specific issues around redress and the timing of redress calculations with us recently. This issue is being investigated alongside the other issues raised in the group complaint.  We have also discussed this issue with the FCA and we are currently in the process of considering the evidence that we have heard on this particular issue.  The findings on this issue together with the other matters that make up our investigation in response to the FCA Decision Letter of 19 April 2024 will be dealt with in the Commissioner’s Preliminary Report.

The Complaints Commissioner is working to issue the Preliminary Report encompassing all of the relevant information as quickly as possible. Complainants who have registered their complaint with the Commissioner and the FCA will be sent the Preliminary Report directly and will have an opportunity to provide comments on the Preliminary Report.  These comments will be considered by the Commissioner before it is made public in a Final Report.

Safe Hands notice – 11 November 2024

The Commissioner received a large number of complaints about the FCA’s handling of Safe Hands Plans Limited (‘Safe Hands’). The Commissioner’s view was that the most efficient and expedient way of addressing the concerns of complainants was to prepare a single ‘master’ preliminary report, which was issued on 9 September 2024 to eligible complainants. Those complainants, their representatives and the FCA were invited to comment on the preliminary report by 30 September 2024.

The Commissioner is considering subsequent comments and/or responses to the preliminary report and will take these into consideration if she thinks it is appropriate to do so, when responding to complainants. The FCA has now provided a response to the Commissioner’s additional enquiries. The Commissioner will take into consideration all the information and comments made on the preliminary report and will be working to review all the relevant information.  The issuance of the report in a timely fashion is a priority for this office which it will endeavour to do as quickly as it can whilst ensuring a thorough and careful investigation is completed.

We have been working extremely hard in our investigation into the FCA’s handling of Safe Hands to ensure we would be able to provide complainants with an answer to their complaint as quickly as possible. We appreciate complainants may have felt frustrated at times and we thank you for your ongoing patience during this time.

Please check this website for further updates on 17 February 2025 if a decision has not been issued by then.

Collateral update – 08 January 2025

The Office of the Complaints Commissioner has received a number of complaints relating to Collateral (UK) Ltd (Collateral).  We understand that on 17 December 2024, the FCA issued a decision letter to 346 Collateral complainants, so we expect to receive further complaints in the coming weeks.

Under the Complaints Scheme there is a three-month referral period from the date the FCA issued its decision letter to complainants, to refer their complaints about the FCA’s decision to the Complaints Commissioner.  The FCA issued its decision letter to existing complainants on 17 December 2024, those that received a decision letter on this date should refer their complaint to the Complaints Commissioner by 31 March 2025 if they are unhappy with the outcome of the FCA’s investigation.  The FCA have confirmed on their website that if anyone has not yet complained to them, they should do so by 31 March 2025.

We have already started our investigation into this group complaint, however to ensure that all complaint points are considered in our review of this group complaint, we do not expect to issue our report until at least 6 April 2025.

The Office of the Complaints Commissioner is aware that the FCA offered compensation in its decision letter to complainants, please note that acceptance of this offer does not preclude complainants from referring their complaints to the Complaints Commissioner and/or for asking for further compensation from the Complaints Commissioner. Please note, you will need to contact the FCA directly to accept any compensation they have offered.

Please monitor this website for further updates.  We will provide a further update on this website when we have any further significant updates to provide to complainants.