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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

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Switchboard 020 7066 1000
Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (PSR)

 

Our ref:  FOI3745

 

 

Dear Mr Buck

 

We refer to your email of 13 November 2014 relating to the FCA’s decision
(“the Decision”) to make the Personal Pension Scheme Operators (Capital
Requirements) Instrument 2014.

 

Your request for “. . . any documents provided to the Board of the
Authority on or about 24 July 2014 for the purposes of determining whether
to take the Decision” is currently being considered.

 

We are of the view that at least one qualified exemption under the Act may
apply to the information you have requested.  As this is the case, the FCA
is required to weigh the public interest in maintaining the exemption/s
against the public interest in disclosing any information.

 

By virtue of section 10(3), where public authorities have to consider the
balance of the public interest in relation to a request, they do not have
to comply with the request until such time as is reasonable in the
circumstances.  The FCA has not yet reached a decision on the balance of
the public interest.  Due to the need to consider, in all the
circumstances of the case, where the balance of the public interest lies
in relation to the information that you have requested, the FCA will not
be able to respond to your request in full within 20 working days.  In
these circumstances, we should be in a position to respond to your request
by 13 January 2015, if not sooner.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Access Team

Financial Conduct Authority

 

 

 

 

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended
recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some
of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer.

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the PSR, the FCA on behalf of
the PSR/the PSR) reserves the right to monitor all email communications
for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR).

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 25 The North
Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is registered as a limited company in
England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade,
Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (PSR)

 

 

Our ref:  FOI3745

 

 

Dear Mr Buck

 

We write further to our email of 11 December 2014 relating to your request
for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”). 
You requested the following information in relation to PS14/12 ‘A new
capital framework for Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPP) operators’:

 

“Please disclose any documents provided to the Board of the Authority on
or about 24 July 2014 for the purposes of determining whether to take the
Decision’.

In this instance the following applies:

 

‘Board of the Authority’ means the FCA, ‘24th July 2014’ means the date of
the decision of the FCA Board in relation to PS14/12, and ‘The Decision’
means the Personal Pension Scheme Operators (Capital Requirements)
Instrument 2014.”

 

In our email of 11 December we advised that we needed more time to
consider your request as we were of the view that at least one qualified
exemption under the Act may apply to the information you requested.  This
exercise has now been completed and our response is provided below.

 

It might help if we first set out some background to the way the Financial
Conduct Authority handles the requests it receives under the Act.

 

Requests for information made under the Act are generally applicant
blind.  This requires that we read a request objectively, impartially and
in isolation.  We have no need to know, nor speculate, as to why the
information has been requested or to check any previous correspondence
from the requester.  Likewise, our background knowledge (if any) of the
requester or his/her interest should not affect the way the request is
handled or the response they receive.

 

Equally, the fact that a requester may have guessed (or have knowledge of)
the information which is being requested, or is seeking to get the FCA to
confirm or deny the alleged content of the information, does not in itself
justify the disclosure or non-disclosure of the information sought. 
Likewise, disclosing any information under the Act, or simply confirming
or denying that information was held is considered to be a disclosure to
the general public at large.

 

Turning now to your request, we can confirm that we hold information that
falls within the scope of your request and we are able to provide you with
the majority of this information.  This is contained in the attached
redacted copy of a paper presented to the FCA Board on this matter on 24
July 2014.

 

However, we are unable to provide the remainder of the information, as
disclosure of some of it would, or would be likely to, prejudice the
exercise by the FCA of its function for the purpose of ascertaining
whether circumstances which would justify regulatory action in pursuance
of any enactment exist or may arise.  Therefore, this information is
exempt from disclosure under section 31 (Law enforcement) of the Act.  We
have considered the public interest arguments for and against disclosure
but, for the reasons set out in Annex A, we have determined that the
public interest is in maintaining the exemption.

 

In addition, some of the information you requested contains legal advice. 
In respect of this information a claim to legal professional privilege
(LPP) could be maintained in legal proceedings and such information is
conditionally exempt under section 42 (Legal professional privilege) of
the Act.  For the reasons set out in Annex A, we have determined that the
public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public
interest in disclosure of the information falling within this exemption.

 

Finally, to the extent that some of the information requested is (or
contains) information that the FCA has received for the purpose of
carrying out our functions under the Financial Services and Markets Act
2000 (“FMSA”), it is exempt from disclosure under section 44 (Prohibitions
on disclosure) of the Act for the reasons set out in Annex A.

 

Some sections of the paper presented to the FCA Board have also been
redacted as these fall outside the scope of your request and are therefore
not relevant.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Information Access Team

Financial Conduct Authority

 

 

Your right to complain under the FoI Act

 

If you are unhappy with the decision made in relation to your request, you
have the right to request an internal review.  If you wish to exercise
this right you should contact us within three months of the date of this
response.

 

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also
have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9
5AF.  Telephone: 01625 545 700.  Website: [1]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

 

 

 

This communication and any attachments contain information which is
confidential and may be subject to legal privilege. It is for intended
recipients only. If you are not the intended recipient you must not copy,
distribute, publish, rely on or otherwise use it without our consent. Some
of our communications may contain confidential information which it could
be a criminal offence for you to disclose or use without authority. If you
have received this email in error please notify [email address]
immediately and delete the email from your computer.

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the PSR, the FCA on behalf of
the PSR/the PSR) reserves the right to monitor all email communications
for compliance with legal, regulatory and professional standards.

This email is not intended to nor should it be taken to create any legal
relations or contractual relationships. This email has originated from the
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR).

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 25 The North
Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) is registered as a limited company in
England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 25 The North Colonnade,
Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (PSR)

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.org.uk/