St James's Place Wealth Management Plc

FOI reference - FOI-477
Date - 14 June 2026

Request

Please provide the following information:

1. Whether the Pensions Regulator has received any reports, notifications, or referrals concerning St. James's Place Wealth Management PLC or its Appointed Representatives between 1 January 2018 and the date of this request in connection with the handling of personal pension transfers or annuity arrangements.
2. The number of complaints or referrals received by the Pensions Regulator between 1 January 2018 and the date of this request concerning the failure of a regulated financial adviser to execute a client's pension transfer instruction within a reasonable timeframe.
3. The Pensions Regulator's published guidance on the obligations of financial advisers when a client's pension transfer instruction is not executed within a reasonable timeframe.

Response

1. We neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request.
2. Under section 12 of the FoIA public authorities are not obliged to comply with a request for information where the cost of complying would exceed the appropriate limit in the fees regulations, which, for us, is set at £450. Staff costs are fixed at £25 per person per hour. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether we hold the information, locating, retrieving, and extracting it.
   
   In this instance, we cannot easily retrieve the information. This is because when a customer contacts TPR we categories the type of enquiry made. We do not have a specific category related to specifically financial advisors. Categories the contact could fall under are, for example:
   
   •  Customer Concern – Administration
   •  Customer Concern – Liberation
   •  Whistleblower (Non-Statutory) – Administration
   •  Whistleblower (Non-Statutory) – Liberation
   •  Breach of Law (Statutory) – Administration
   •  Non TPR – FCA
   
   We have identified that since 1 January 2018, 8,531 cases mentioned financial advisors. However, to review and confirm if they could be considered a complaint or referral would exceed the cost limit. More information can be found in the duty to provide advice and assistance section below as to why we might not be based placed to answer this question.
3. TPR does not directly regulate financial advisers, however you can find guidance from our code of practice for the governing bodies of schemes which states “Governing bodies are required to complete transfers within six months”.

Duty to confirm or deny whether we hold the information requested

We have carefully considered your request for information. For the reasons outlined below we can neither confirm nor deny that we hold information falling within the description specified in your request.

Exemption - Section 44 of the FoIA – restricted information under s82 PA04

The reason that we cannot confirm or deny that we hold the information is because disclosure of the sort of information requested is prohibited under an enactment, save in certain circumstances which do not apply here.

Whilst the FoIA is based on the presumption of releasing information, section 44(1)(a) of the FoIA provides an absolute exemption to the requirement to disclose any information if its disclosure is prohibited by or under any enactment. In this case, section 82(4) of the Pensions Act 2004 (PA04) prohibits disclosure and we are unable to disclose this sort of information. This exemption is absolute and does not require a public interest assessment be undertaken.

Under section 44(2) of FOIA a public authority does not have to confirm or deny whether it holds the information requested if doing so would reveal information prohibited from disclosure under another enactment.

As we have been given strong powers to demand documents and other information from trustees, employers and others, those powers are also balanced by restrictions on how we disclose the information provided to us. The type of information you have requested would be ‘restricted information’. Restricted information is defined at section 82 of the PA04 as: ‘…information obtained by the Regulator in the exercise of its functions which relates to the business or other affairs of any person’.

Under section 82(5) of the PA04 it is a criminal offence to disclose such information except as permitted under that Act.

This should not be taken as any indication of whether or not we hold the information you requested.

Duty to provide advice and assistance

Regarding question 1, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) would be better placed to respond to this question as in the UK, almost all financial firms must be authorised or registered by the FCA. You can search and confirm if St. James's Place Wealth Management PLC is authorised and registered with the FCA. Please see: FCA guidance on the complaints process for authorised firms. 

The Financial Ombudsman also provides guidance on complaints relating to pension transfers. 

Regarding questions 2 and 3, the FCA would be better placed to respond to these questions as they are the primary regulator of financial firms/advisers in the UK. This includes firms/advisors who assist and advise on pension transfers. The FCA have published guidance about transfers on their website. 

Find out more about the FCA’s FoIA process. 

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