Section 166 Reports are also known as Skilled Persons Reports (SPRs). The name comes from the part of the Financial Services and Markets Act, 2000 which gives the FSA the authority to request firms to seek specialist assistance.

Skilled Persons Reports are most often required as the result of an FSA visit to a firm. They are used to find out what further regulatory action may be needed and to see if there has been a breach of a rule or any failure of the firm's systems and controls, particularly where customer detriment is suspected.

The FSA refers to Data Security (also known as information security) as the way that firms put in place systems and controls to prevent their consumers' personal details, such as address, date of birth, national insurance number, earnings, account details, etc, from being accessed by criminals.  Firms have legal and regulatory responsibilities to safeguard their consumers' data.

In 2008, the FSA published its findings following a thematic review of the quality of pension switching advice.  As a result of this, the FSA produced a pension switching advice suitability assessment template and suggested that firms may wish to undertake a review of past sales to determine if historic advice was suitable.   The FSA have indicated that it will be carrying out further assessments on this issue in 2009.