in the interim I got into debt as I was writing the book on a wing and a player. I worked for a member of the Scottish Parliament for some time and now have a couple of part-time jobs, including furniture removal. As I say, I still get nightmares about being a vet and would rather do anything else!

I do hope things work out for you! Stay in touch.

Freedom of Information freoinf@fsa.gov.uk
Oct 25
to me

Our ref: FOI2723

Dear Mr Rea & Mr de Caluwe Hemelrijk

Freedom of Information: Right to know request

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

“Copies of all complaints filed against RBS and or RBS employees from 2010 – 2012.”

For your information, the FSA as an organisation does not deal with consumer complaints and any such enquirer that expresses dissatisfaction is referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You may find it helpful to visit the FOS website (http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/) for more information. It is therefore possible that we may hold a record of such enquiries.

Your request has now been considered. I am sorry to inform you that we estimate that to comply with your request in full would exceed the 18 hour time limit. This is because the information requested is likely to be spread across a number of files and the information is not indexed in such a way to identify whether it is a complaint or an enquiry about the firm and we would need to review and assess all of the files that we hold to extract the information relevant to your request, and therefore the following exemption applies.

Section 12 (Costs of compliance exceeds appropriate limit)

In order to extract the information we would need to consider and review all the records that we hold in our Contact Centre for Royal Bank of Scotland (“RBS”) for the period quoted (2010 to 8 October 2012 – the date of receipt of your request) to establish whether they are complaints. This is because we are not able to readily identify those items that may be a complaint or an enquiry without reviewing the individual correspondence. .

You should also note that under the document retention policy for the Contact Centre copies of electronic documents are held for 7 years and hard copy documents for twelve months. We would also need to contact other areas of the FSA that may hold information relevant to your request.

For the period from 1 January 2010 to 8 October 2012 (the date of receipt of your request) we hold approximately 4,000 electronic and papers records in our Contact Centre in relation to RBS. We would need to review each of these records to establish whether or not they fall within the scope of your request. In this context, we conservatively estimate that it would take well in excess of 18 hours to undertake this exercise and exceed the £450 limit. Since 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 be able to carry out this exercise.

In reaching the conclusion that your request exceeds the appropriate cost limit we have not considered whether any other exemptions apply. However, you should be aware that any information that the FSA has received from or about a firm is likely to be prohibited from disclosure under section 348 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 as it would be confidential information received for the purposes of carrying out our regulatory functions and supervision of those firms and individuals. Such information is therefore likely to be exempt from the Act by virtue of section 44 (prohibitions on disclosure) of the Act. Other exemptions under the Act may also apply to that material.

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 come within the cost limit. In this case, as explained above, due to the volume of information that we hold across the FSA, we are unable to assist you with providing a way in which to refine your request in order to obtain the information you are interested in. Any refinement that we suggest is likely to exceed the statutory time limit.

If you have any queries or 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 letter.

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: http://www.ico.gov.uk

Yours sincerely

Sandra Collins | Associate – Information Access Team | Finance and Operations Division
Financial Services Authority, 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS

Tel: 020 7066 7120

http://www.fsa.gov.uk