How many licenced Taxi / PHV drivers are working on Visas
Request ID: FOI-0004-2425 Date published: 29 April 2024
You asked
F/O from 4649-2324
Narrowed; Into one question, and two years, as follows;
Drivers;
How many are non UK, EU & EEU Citizens, on a Visa, Meaning; All types of UK Visas; from Tier1 -to- Tier5 ?
from 01/04/2022 up to now, when you receive this email.
We answered
TfL Ref: 0004-2425
Thank you for your revised request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 5 April 2024 asking for information about how many Taxi and Private Hire Drivers are non UK, EU & EEU Citizens, working on a Visa.
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 we hold the information you require. You asked: Drivers; How many are non UK, EU & EEU Citizens, on a Visa, Meaning; All types of UK Visas; from Tier1 -to- Tier5 ? from 01/04/2022 up to now, when you receive this email.
Unfortunately, to provide this information would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
We appreciate that you have narrowed the scope of your request, however two years of licensees is approximately two thirds of current licensees – circa 70,000 driver records and as advised previously, we do not hold the information requested in a reportable format and would need to manually to review thousands of licences, both current and historical, to answer your questions.
To explain a little further, part of our licensing criteria is to ensure that applicants/drivers have the right to work and reside in the UK, however the information we gather isn’t recorded in a reportable format once those checks have been carried out and would need to be checked manually.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. For example, if you submitted a new request we may be able to answer a request for the current number of vehicles we licence and their various engine specifications.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Sara Thomas FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
