Thank you for e-mailing the Financial Conduct Authority's Information Access Team. This is an automatic acknowledgement to tell you we have received your email safely. Please do not reply to this email. We will be in touch in due course.

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information. For more information about how and why we use personal information and who to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices: FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR Privacy Notice (https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

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. Further information on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the FCA website (http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the Payment Systems Regulator Limited) 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 Limited.

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 Limited 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 (the Payment Systems Regulator Limited)

Our ref: FOI5928

Dear Mr Benjamin

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

Thank you for your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act), as follows:

“1) Please provide records of the number of FOIA requests received by the
FCA 2013 - 2018, broken down by month and year in Microsoft excel format.

2) Please provide the FOIA logs describing the subject of these FOIA's in
MS Excel format.

3) Please provide data regarding the timeliness of FCA responses to FOIA
requests, broken down by month and year in MS excel format.”

We regret to inform you that for the reasons outlined below we are having
difficulty in processing your request. 

To help us meet your request could you please therefore clarify whether we
should interpret the date range as:

o each calendar year from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2017; or
o each financial year i.e. 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2018.

I will be unable to proceed with your request without clarification of the
information you wish to receive.

Please note that under guidance issued by the Ministry of Justice and the
Information Commissioner's Office entitled "Freedom of Information &
Environmental Information Regulations - Hints for practitioners handling
FOI/EIR requests", the following advice has been given with regard to the
clarification of requests:

"The day after the clarification is received by the public authority the
20 working day period begins" (page 14).

I have attached the link to the Guidance for your information:

[1]https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

The 20 working day period will therefore commence once we have received
sufficient clarification to allow us to deal with your request.

If I do not receive a response within 14 days of this email I shall assume
that you no longer wish to pursue your enquiry and will therefore close
your request.  In such an event, you would need to submit a new Freedom of
Information request for any information you wish to receive.

If you have any queries please contact us.

Yours sincerely

Information Disclosure Team / Cyber and Information Resilience Department
/ Operations

[2]Description: cid:image001.png@01D2A7C9.64DDD390

12 Endeavour Square

London

E20 1JN

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7066 8080

[3]www.fca.org.uk

Follow us:

[4]Description: https://g.twimg.com/Twitter_logo_blue.pn...
image003

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

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. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) 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
Limited.

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 Limited 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 (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...
3. http://www.fca.org.uk/
4. https://twitter.com/TheFCA
5. https://www.linkedin.com/company/financi...

Thank you for e-mailing the Financial Conduct Authority's Information Access Team. This is an automatic acknowledgement to tell you we have received your email safely. Please do not reply to this email. We will be in touch in due course.

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information. For more information about how and why we use personal information and who to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices: FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR Privacy Notice (https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

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. Further information on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the FCA website (http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the Payment Systems Regulator Limited) 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 Limited.

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 Limited 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 (the Payment Systems Regulator Limited)

Our ref: FOI5928

Dear Mr Benjamin

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

Thank you for your email dated 14 August 2018, regarding the information
you have requested under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 

We are currently considering your request and will contact you again as
soon as possible.  If it is likely to take more than 20 working days from
the date of receiving your email to respond in full, we will write to you
again.

Yours sincerely

Information Disclosure Team / Cyber and Information Resilience Department
/ Operations

[1]Description: cid:image001.png@01D2A7C9.64DDD390

12 Endeavour Square

London

E20 1JN

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7066 8080

[2]www.fca.org.uk

Follow us:

[3]Description: https://g.twimg.com/Twitter_logo_blue.pn...
image003

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

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. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) 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
Limited.

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 Limited 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 (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

References

Visible links
2. http://www.fca.org.uk/
3. https://twitter.com/TheFCA
4. https://www.linkedin.com/company/financi...

Our Ref: FOI5928

Dear Mr Benjamin

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

Thank you for your request dated 8 August 2018 under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (the Act), for the following information:

“1) Please provide records of the number of FOIA requests received by the
FCA 2013 - 2018, broken down by month and year in Microsoft excel format.

2) Please provide the FOIA logs describing the subject of these FOIA's in
MS Excel format.

3) Please provide data regarding the timeliness of FCA responses to FOIA
requests, broken down by month and year in MS excel format.”

Your request was subsequently clarified on 14 August 2018 as follows:

“Given the FCA is only obligated to respond to FOIA requests providing
information in the manner in which it is obtained/ held - I expect you to
provide the information in whichever format (either annual or financial
year) it is held/used by the FCA for monitoring and reporting purposes.”

We have now considered your request and confirm we hold the information
you have requested. We have interpreted the date range of the information
requested to cover the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2018 as this is
consistent with our published reporting arrangements under the Act.

I will now turn to answering your request.

For part one of your request, the attached spreadsheet in Annex B (in MS
Excel format), shows the date FOIA requests have been received by the FCA
in column A. To establish the total numbers of requests received in any
given month or year it is possible to filter this column by the date
ranges you require.

For part two of your request, a summary of each request received is
contained within column B of the attached spreadsheet. However, we are
unable to disclose some information falling within the scope of this part
of your request as it comprises the personal data of individuals other
than yourself and therefore section 40 (Personal Information) of the Act
applies. Please refer to Annex A below for a detailed explanation of why
this exemption applies.

For the third part of your request, details of the timeliness of each
response can be found in column C of the attached spreadsheet. As you may
be aware our target, in line with the Information Commissioner’s
monitoring threshold
([1]https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...)
is to complete 90% of formal FOI requests received within the 20 day
statutory deadline. On occasion, some requests have been closed outside
the relevant deadline due to a number of contributing factors. During the
period 1 April 2017 – 31 March 2018 94% of requests were responded to
within the set timeframe.

You will note that some of the numbers in column C are preceded by a minus
sign – this represents the number of working days lapsed in excess of the
statutory time limit for response. The date shown in column D details the
date the request was closed on our internal systems. Again, it is possible
to filter this column by the date ranges you require.

Lastly, you may also be interested to know that information about the
handling of requests under the Act is regularly published on the FCA’s
website:  [2]https://www.fca.org.uk/about/measuring-o... within
the Service Standards Report:
([3]https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corpo...),
prior to 2018 it was also part of the FCA’s Annual Report
([4]https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/annua...

Yours sincerely

Information Disclosure Team / Cyber and Information Resilience Department
/ Operations

[5]Description: cid:image001.png@01D2A7C9.64DDD390

12 Endeavour Square

London

E20 1JN

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7066 8080

[6]www.fca.org.uk

Follow us:

[7]Description: https://g.twimg.com/Twitter_logo_blue.pn...
image003

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: [9]www.ico.org.uk

Annex A

o Section 40 - Personal Information

We have applied this exemption because the first condition (as stated in
section 40(3) of the Act) is satisfied.  The information you have
requested contains the personal data of individuals other than yourself
which, if disclosed, would breach the requirement of the General Data
Protection Regulations (“GDPR”) including the data protection principles
of Article 5 and the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA”)

In particular, it would be a breach of the first data protection Principle
as set out in Article 5 of the GDPR, to disclose such information, as it
would not be necessary or fair to the individuals concerned, or lawful,
where none of the conditions in Article 6(1) of the GDPR have been met. 
The individuals concerned have not given their consent for their personal
details to be made public and the release of such information may be
detrimental to the individuals themselves.

Section 40 is an absolute exemption so it is not necessary to balance the
public interest for and against disclosing the information.

This communication and any attachments may contain personal information.
For more information about how and why we use personal information and who
to contact with any queries about this, please see our privacy notices:
FCA Privacy Notice (https://www.fca.org.uk/data-protection) and PSR
Privacy Notice
(https://www.psr.org.uk/cookies-privacy-a...).

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. Further information
on the classification and handling of FCA information can be found on the
FCA website
(http://www.fca.org.uk/site-info/legal/fc...).

The FCA (or, if this email originates from the Payment Systems Regulator
Limited, the FCA on behalf of the Payment Systems Regulator Limited / the
Payment Systems Regulator Limited) 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
Limited.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 1920623. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

The Payment Systems Regulator Limited is registered as a limited company
in England and Wales No. 8970864. Registered office: 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford, London, E20 1JN, United Kingdom

Switchboard 020 7066 1000

Web Site http://www.fca.org.uk (FCA); http://www.psr.org.uk (the Payment
Systems Regulator Limited)

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...
2. https://www.fca.org.uk/about/measuring-o...
3. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corpo...
4. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/annua...
6. http://www.fca.org.uk/
7. https://twitter.com/TheFCA
8. https://www.linkedin.com/company/financi...
9. http://www.ico.org.uk/