The Pensions Regulator

Our publication scheme

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Can the Pensions Regulator withhold information?

Although the Freedom of Information Act supports national policies to modernise government and encourage openness, there are some exemptions. For example, we may withhold information where:

• we are not allowed to release it under other legislation or it would be a contempt of court to release it;
• it is legal advice;
• it was provided in confidence or is classed as personal data under the Data Protection Act;
• it is due to be published in the future;
• it is already reasonably available to you from another source; or
• it would affect any of our investigations.

We may:

• refuse requests from anyone who repeatedly asks for the same or very similar information;
• withhold information where the cost of releasing it is more than £450 (although we will provide information up to that cost); or
• in some cases not tell you whether we hold the information you have asked for.

Sometimes we may need more than 20 working days to find information and decide whether or not we can release it. If this is the case, we will respond to you within 20 days of receiving your request to let you know that it will take us longer to deal with it.

We will try to tell you when we expect to be able to respond in full.

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What if I'm not satisfied with how the Pensions Regulator has dealt with my request?

If not satisfied, you can complain by writing (letter, email or fax) to our corporate secretary at the Pensions Regulator.

We will either respond in full to your complaint within 20 working days or let you know as soon as we can if we expect to take longer than this.

If you are still not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

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Charges for freedom of information requests

Under the Freedom of Information Act the Pensions Regulator can charge fees for time spent locating or copying records. We can also charge for providing information in a particular format.

We don't charge for the time spent considering if information should be released.

Information listed on the publication scheme
All items listed are currently available free of charge. However, we reserve the right to impose a charge for:

• any new priced publications that may be added to the scheme;
• reasonable costs when providing information in a particular format; and
• reasonable costs when providing multiple copies.

Information not listed on the publication scheme
If the information can be released we will do so if the costs are less than £450. We will charge for:

• determining if the requested information is held by us;
• locating and retrieving the information; and
• collating, editing, copying and formatting the information to make it ready to issue.

(We do not charge for the time spent considering if information should be released.)

Our charges are as follows:

• staff time – £25 per hour;
• retrieval of documents from off-site archives – actual cost;
• photocopying – free of charge for the first 100 pages, then 10p per side;
• postage costs – Royal Mail rates;
• additional printing – actual cost; and
• supply of information in a different format (ie on CD-ROM) – actual cost plus staff time.

If costs exceed £450, we will discuss the request with you and see if we can supply information to meet your needs that will cost less than £450.

We can collate requests received within any period of 60 working days, but not beyond this timescale.

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Copyright statement

You may reproduce the text from any of our publications, as long as you quote the Pensions Regulator's name and the title of the publication.

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Useful contacts

If you have any questions about your rights under the Freedom of Information Act, you can email our corporate secretariat team at: foi@thepensionsregulator.gov.uk.

You can also get leaflets and more information from:

Information Commissioner
Phone: 01625 545745
Fax: 01625 524510
Email: foi-enquiries@ico.gsi.gov.uk
http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Department for Constitutional Affairs
Phone: 020 7210 8034
Fax: 020 7210 8388
Email: informationrights@dca.gsi.gov.uk
http://www.foi.gov.uk/

The Campaign for Freedom of Information
Phone: 020 7831 7477
Fax: 020 7831 7461
Email: admin@cfoi.demon.co.uk
http://www.cfoi.org.uk/

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