Section 21 (Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means)
We are not required to provide you with this publicly available information as it is accessible to you by other means.
FOIA states that information should be considered to be reasonably accessible to the applicant, if it is information which the FCA or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment.
To the extent that the information we hold is publicly available, we are exempt from the duty to release it under the section 21 of FOIA, as this is information which is accessible to you by other means.
As mentioned, the information you have asked for can be obtained from the Register Extract Service and a link to our website where you can request this can be found above.
Section 43 (Commercial Interests)
This section of FOIA states that we are exempt from providing this information if disclosing it would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person, including the public authority that holds the information.
As this exemption is subject to the public interest test, we have considered relevant factors in favour, and against, disclosing information as required by FOIA.
For disclosing:
• There is a strong public interest in being open and transparent on the firms that the FCA regulates.
- Disclosing the information might reassure the public about the effectiveness of the FCA’s regulatory approach and demonstrate how we respond to supervisory matters in the sector we regulate.
- Disclosure could also give consumers information to help them in making decisions about their dealings or potential dealings with firms and individuals that are, or may be, operating in the financial services industry.
Against disclosure
- Although there is a strong case for openness and transparency, disclosure of a copy of the register is likely to undermine the FCA’s commercial interests. This is because it is part of the FCA’s role to generate income through the register and disclosure of this information would result in lost sales of RES data.
- It is strongly in the public interest that the FCA is able to have open and candid exchanges of information with the firms it regulates, regardless of the commercial sensitivity of the information. Disclosing the information could lead to firms being less willing to cooperate with us on similar work.
On this occasion, and for these reasons, we have concluded that the balance of the public interest is in favour of not disclosing the information.
