Information Rights Team
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
Email: xxxxxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Website: www.fco.gov.uk/foi
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
22 May 2013
Dear Natacha Cingotti,
Your Freedom Of Information Request: 0361-13
Information about all contacts (including emails and letter exchanges) between
members of the Permanent Representation of the UK and banks and financial
institutions (including: pension funds, asset management companies, trading venues,
asset managers), in relation to the recast of MIFID (the Proposal for a Directive of the
European Parliament and of the Council on markets in financial instruments
repealing Directive 2004/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council) since
1 January 2012.
A list of meetings that took place between the parties mentioned in 1) since 1
January 2012.
I can now confirm that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office does hold information falling
within the terms of this request.
The FOI Act obliges us to respond to requests promptly, and in any case no later than 20
working days after receiving your request. However, when a qualified exemption applies to
the information and the public interest test is engaged, the Act allows the time for response
to be longer than 20 working days, and a full response must be provided within such time as
is reasonable in all circumstances of the case. We do, of course, aim to make all decisions
within 20 working days, including in cases where we need to consider where the public
interest lies in respect of a request for exempt information. In this case, however, we have
not yet reached a decision on where the balance of the public interest lies.
The exemption we are considering is Section 27 (International Relations).
In your case we estimate that it will take an additional 20 days to take a decision on where
the balance of the public interest lies. Therefore, we plan to let you have a response by
20 June 2013. If it appears that it will take longer than this to reach a conclusion, we will
keep you informed. If you are unhappy with the service you are receiving and wish to make
a complaint, please write to the Information Rights Team at Room 4.10 - 4.14, King Charles
Street London, SW1A 2AH. E-mail:
xxxxxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx. You have 40 working days to
do so from the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may then apply directly to the
Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot
make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the FCO.
The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Please contact me if you have any queries about this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Ben Norman
Benjamin Norman
Europe Directorate
We keep and use information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to other UK
government departments and public authorities.