Request ID: FOI-3030-2324 Date published: 17 May 2024
You asked
• The total volume of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) entries annually recorded by cameras owned by Transport for London and submitted to a Back Office Facility linked to the National ANPR Data Centre or the National ANPR Service, from the last three calendar years until November 2023
• Contracts relating to the procurement of the current contractor responsible for maintaining ANPR cameras owned by Transport for London
• Any Data Protection Impact Assessment Documents relating to the use of ANPR technology by Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service
• Any Memorandum of Understanding documents or similar relating to the installation of ANPR cameras between Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-3030-2324
Thank you for your request received on 24 November 2023 asking for information about Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras. I apologise for the delay in my response.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. You asked for: • The total volume of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) entries annually recorded by cameras owned by Transport for London and submitted to a Back Office Facility linked to the National ANPR Data Centre or the National ANPR Service, from the last three calendar years until November 2023 From 1 November 2020 to 28 November 2023 a total of 17,669,059,123 number plate records from TfL ANPR cameras have been submitted to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Back Office Facility. This figure is a reflection of the number of vehicles driven in London and the fact that individual number plates will usually be picked up by multiple cameras on any one journey. The data is held securely by the MPS in accordance with the requirements of data protection legislation and national policing standards. Further information on how the MPS stores and uses ANPR data can be found here: Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) | Metropolitan Police. Please note that the MPS currently has no live access to TfL’s ANPR enforcement camera network and has not done since early 2022, when an upgrade to this network required the MPS’s access to be disconnected. Since this point the MPS has retained live access only to data feeds from cameras in TfL’s traffic monitoring network, which was not subject to the technology upgrade. The traffic monitoring network is substantially smaller in scale than the enforcement network and the MPS retained access to fewer than 60 cameras. No imagery is shared alongside vehicle number plate information. • Contracts relating to the procurement of the current contractor responsible for maintaining ANPR cameras owned by Transport for London A copy of the contract is published online: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:128241-2014:TEXT:EN:HTML&tabId=1#id0-I Under section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to provide you with information which is reasonably accessible by other means. • Any Data Protection Impact Assessment Documents relating to the use of ANPR technology by Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service TfL publishes information about the camera sharing arrangements with the MPS within our Road User Charging privacy notice (See ‘Police access to ANPR cameras’). All the Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) relating to the Inner London expansion of ULEZ as well as the London-wide expansion of the zone are also published within the privacy notice page. These include references to camera sharing with the MPS. The DPIA conducted by the MPS themselves on their proposed use of TfL’s ANPR enforcement cameras is published online: MD2977 Delegation to TfL to grant ANPRC data access to MPS | London City Hall (Appendix B of the Supporting Documents section). Again, please note that no decision has been taken by TfL to re-provide to the MPS the live access to a data feed from ANPR cameras we use for road user charging enforcement which was in place from 2015 to early 2022. • Any Memorandum of Understanding documents or similar relating to the installation of ANPR cameras between Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service No agreement exists between TfL and the MPS regarding the installation of ANPR cameras. If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
