Insider Trading: Prosecutions

(asked on 25th November 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for insider trading there have been under (1) the Criminal Justice Act 1993, and (2) the Financial Services Act 2012; and what was the outcome of each such prosecution.


Answered by
Baroness Scott of Bybrook Portrait
Baroness Scott of Bybrook
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
This question was answered on 9th December 2020

The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions, convictions and sentences for offences committed under both the Financial Services Act 2012 and the Criminal Justice Act 1993, from 2013 to 2019, available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888344/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

No defendants were prosecuted where the principal offence fell under the Financial Services Act 2012 between 2013 and 2019.

In this instance, all offences under the Criminal Justice Act 1993 are under one Home Office offence code, so cannot be disaggregated. Search ‘Detailed offence’ in the data tool linked above for ‘Insider dealing’.

12 individuals were prosecuted and 13 were sentenced under the Criminal Justice Act 1993, between 2013 and 2019. Defendants who appear before both magistrates’ and Crown courts may be convicted and sentenced for a different offence to that for which they are counted as having been originally prosecuted if the offence is changed on conviction. Sentence outcomes were 3 suspended sentences and 10 immediate custodial sentences.

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