Financial Services Authority

The complainant submitted 9 requests to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) all of which focused on the FSA’s regulation of Northern Rock. The FSA refused these requests on the basis that the aggregated cost of complying with them was estimated to exceed the appropriate cost limit of £450. The Commissioner has considered the circumstances of this refusal and has concluded that all of the requests are sufficiently ‘similar’ so the FSA is entitled to aggregate the cost of complying with them. Furthermore, the Commissioner is satisfied that the FSA has provided a reasonable estimate which demonstrates that the cost of complying with the first request would exceed £450 and thus the FSA is entitled to refuse to fulfil any of the 9 requests.