Interview with Ian Adderley, Technical Specialist, Mutual Societies Development Unit of the Financial Conduct Authority (UK)

© Ian Adderley

© Ian Adderley

Could you briefly introduce yourself, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the recently published Mutuals Registering Authority Report?

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK registering authority for ‘mutual societies’. These include cooperative societies (previously known as ‘industrial and provident societies’). Most cooperatives in the UK are cooperative societies. I work as a Technical Specialist – leading the FCA’s work in this area. In December 2025 we published the Mutuals Registering Authority Report. The report makes recommendations and sets out the steps we are taking to support the sustainable growth of the sector. As part of that – we provide a statistical overview of the landscape.

How are statistics and data involved in your work (or FCA's work in general)?

Our recommendations identified the need to help increase the visibility of cooperatives. Statistics are an important tool to help achieve this. We maintain the ‘Mutuals Public Register’ listing mutual societies. Being able to understand and analyse what is on that register increases understanding and helps us determine how best to support them.

Could you tell us why and how you have used the ILO Guidelines concerning statistics of cooperatives in your work, particularly in the Mutuals Registering Authority Report?

We already classify economic activity through the ‘Standard Industrial Classifications’. And we previously introduced what we call ‘reporting classifications’ – describing the nature or identity of societies, such as ‘agriculture’ or ‘community shops’. We wanted to classify cooperatives and explored the best way of achieving this. The ILO Guidelines will help to provide internationally comparable datasets, which in turn should help to increase the visibility of cooperatives. This international consistency was an important factor.

The approach in the ILO Guidelines, in classifying cooperatives by member interest as: consumers, workers, producers, or a combination of those, is clear and helpful. We therefore categorised cooperatives (over 4,600) using this typology. This helped increase the richness of the data and analysis in the report.

© Financial Conduct Authority

© Financial Conduct Authority

What key findings, insights and challenges emerged from the analysis of cooperatives in the UK using the ILO Guidelines?

The classification helped us identify and evidence patterns or trends. For instance, we saw the emergence of multi-stakeholder cooperatives from the late 2000s onwards. We could evidence spikes in worker cooperatives from the 1970s onwards. From this, we could analyse the drivers of that growth. We also hope the data will be useful to the sector, researchers, and policymakers moving forward.

The ILO conducted pilot testing of the Guidelines in five countries and produced insights and recommendations on their use and further improvement. Based on your experience in the UK, what would be your key recommendations to promote and, if necessary, improve the ILO Guidelines?

We have worked with the ILO Guidelines and the information guide on the Guidelines and benefitted from discussions with ILO staff and others involved in the work internationally. The Guidelines were clear, and it was helpful seeing the work from other countries. Specific case studies or examples of types of cooperative were useful to see and helped with consistency. The recent social media infographics from the ILO are a welcome addition, helping to explain key concepts to a wider audience.

The views expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the International Labour Organization.