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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

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 reference: FOI4550

 

Dear Ms Baxter

 

 

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

 

“I would like access to information on how many financial advice firms and
financial advisers in the UK are either restricted or independent.  I
would like the information for each year from 2011 right through to the
present year of 2016. 

 

I would like the information also broken down in to regions so that I can
have an idea of the city/town the firms and advisers operate in.

 

Please can I have it in the format of an excel spreadsheet with a table
that has the town/city name, with the number of restricted firms,
restricted advisers, independent firms and independent advisers for each
year”

 

Your request has now been considered. To process your request would exceed
the FCA’s statutory cost limit for complying with freedom of information
requests, as contained within the Freedom of Information and Data
Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, and so the
exemption to disclosure in section 12 of the Act applies. For a more
detailed explanation as to why this exemption applies, please refer to
Annex A.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Access Team / Finance and Business Services

[1]FCA_

Financial Conduct Authority

25 The North Colonnade

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5HS

 

Tel: +44 (0)20 7066 8080

 

www.fca.org.uk

 

The contents of this email and any attachment are classified as FCA
RESTRICTED unless stated otherwise.

 

Your right to complain under the 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: [2]www.ico.org.uk

 

 

Annex A

 

 

Section 12 (Cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

 

The Act requires us to comply with a request, unless it would be too
expensive to do so, as estimated in accordance with the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004.  The regulations provide that, for the FCA, the cost limit is £450,
i.e. 18 hours at the rate of £25 per person hour.  The regulations allow
us to take into account when estimating the cost of complying with a
request the time spent determining whether we hold the information
requested, locating and retrieving it, and extracting the information from
the relevant document(s).

 

In order to establish whether we hold the information you have requested,
we would need to review each firm’s file. For 2011 alone, it would take in
excess of 1000 hours to determine whether we hold information relevant to
your request. Therefore, to complete this exercise will take well in
excess of 18hrs. On that basis, we estimate that the cost of retrieving
the information you have requested would exceed the £450 limit.

As our policy is not to divert our resources from our regulatory functions
in order to meet requests under the Act in excess of the cost limit, we
will not carry out an exercise to identify the information you have
requested. 

When we refuse a request because the appropriate limit has been exceeded,
it is our general policy to provide advice and assistance to the applicant
to indicate how the request could be refined or limited to stand a greater
chance of falling within the cost limit. Due to the volume of information
that we have to review in relation to your request, we are unable to
suggest how your request could be refined or limited to come within the
cost limit.

You should note that, in reaching the conclusion that your request exceeds
the appropriate cost limit, we have not considered whether any other
exemptions apply.

 

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 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
2. http://www.ico.org.uk/