Evidence submitted by the Financial Services
Authority
INTRODUCTION
1. The FSA submits this memorandum in response
to the Committee's call for evidence on the work of the Information
Commissioner. Our response is limited to the FSA's progress on
preparing for implementation of the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA).
2. The FSA attaches great importance to
being an open, transparent and accountable public body. We already
make significant quantities of information available to the public
going beyond the requirements in our own statute. Our Publication
Scheme under FOIA has added significantly to this Background.
3. The FSA is the single, statutory regulator
for the great majority of financial services in the UK and is
the competent authority under the European single market directives
for banking, insurance, investments, listing and other financial
services matters. Its powers are conferred primarily by the Financial
Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). The FSA also has registration
functions under legislation applicable to mutual societies, and
related functions under other legislation applicable to financial
services and listing.
4. FSMA establishes a framework of accountability
which includes the following elements:
— an annual report on our work to the
Treasury Ministers, which they lay before Parliament;
— an annual public meeting at which
our annual report is discussed and members of the public can ask
questions;
— an obligation to consult on proposed
rules. Responses are available for inspection on request, unless
the respondent has requested confidentiality; and
— an obligation to establish and maintain
a Consumer Panel and a Practitioner Panel as part of our arrangements
to consult consumers and practitioners. These Panels publish annual
reports on their work and discussions with us and we publish our
response to their recommendations and views.
5. As well as these statutory requirements,
we publish a wide variety of other material because of our policy
of openness and transparency. Examples include our Annual Plan,
a summary annual report and the Baird report on our supervision
of Equitable Life. We also publish reports on our regulation of
particular industry sectors, for example the Tiner reports on
our reform of insurance regulation, and research which we carry
out to inform our policy development. Also, we participate in
a wide range of public conferences and seminars, and speeches
by FSA senior management are available on our website.
6. Implementation of the FOIA is an opportunity
to enhance our existing accountability by disclosing more information.
We have reviewed the types of information we hold, consulted overseas
regulators who are already subject to similar freedom of information
legislation and surveyed the kinds of requests we already receive.
As a result we have published further information in our publication
scheme on particular issues. We have included, amongst other things,
summaries of FSA Board minutes, the responsibilities of FSA's
senior management, our approach to business continuity planning,
our employment policies, tender opportunities, aggregate distribution
of sector capital requirements for banks and building societies,
statistics on cases and memoranda of understanding with other
authorities in the UK and overseas. FSA's Preparedness for FOI
implementation.
CULTURAL CHANGE,
TRAINING AND
AWARENESS RAISING
STRATEGY
7. We have alerted our external stakeholders
to the impact the FOIA will have on the FSA by publishing a discussion
paper last October setting out our approach to implementing FOIA,
including our draft publication scheme. We received 15 responses
including the Information Commissioner's Office, which commented
"It appears that the scheme is actually very good and easy
to navigate around. The layout is very clearly structured and
comes across as very clear and informative . . ." We took
account of these comments in finalising our scheme, which was
approved by the Information Commissioner in January this year.
In February we published our scheme, together with a policy statement
with our response to the feedback we received.
8. Internally, we have engaged colleagues
in freedom of information in a number of ways:
— the FOI project team has reported
regularly to senior management, who have given full support to
the work that needs to be done;
— staff across the organisation have
been actively involved in preparing the publication scheme; and
— other FSA staff have been alerted
through our intranet and cross FSA presentations.
9. As a result there is now a good level
of awareness at senior levels and a reasonable level of awareness
through the rest of the FSA about the impact of the legislation
on us. We have a continuing programme of training and awareness
raising, designed to educate and train FSA staff according to
need. FOI awareness will continue beyond 2004, with an ongoing
programme to brief all new entrants on FOI/DP and Records Management
good practice.
ORGANISATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES,
STRUCTURES AND
PLANNING
10. Since early 2003 we have approached
preparations using project methodology. Through the project and
preparation of the publication scheme, we have established a network
of FOI representatives with a good knowledge of FOI and its possible
impact on their areas' day to day work. We have used the opportunity
of our major structural reorganisation to begin to build a multi-skilled
Information Access team on the foundations of the existing data
protection and records management unit.
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES
11. For the Publication Scheme, we are actively
monitoring and reviewing both content and usage with the aim of
ensuring the information meets the needs of its users and is up
to date at all times. That work will continue.
12. We are currently developing administrative
procedures and electronic systems to ensure that we are able to
meet the statutory target of 20 working days. The procedures put
in place will include automatic triggers to facilitate that; our
achievement against the 20 day target will be kept under regular
review.
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
13. We recognise that good records management
will play a key role in our FOIA implementation. The FSA's Records
Management Policy and Standards are currently under review to
ensure that records in all forms are captured. The standards will
support the increased use of electronic records to gain operational
benefits without introducing extra risks and help achieve the
aims of the FSA's information resource strategy.
Financial Services Authority
29 April 2004
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