Request ID: FOI-0015-2425 Date published: 29 April 2024
You asked
Dear Transport for London,
1. Please clarify me with your definition of assault to it's staff. (Please provide withany framework or guidance that is used)
2. Please provide statistics on London Buses of number of assaults recorded towards bus drivers in the last 5 years. Please list this by year.
3. Please clarify if there are any notices related to assault / protections of staff (bus drivers) as part of the TfL Bus Specification.
4. Please provide the number of bus driver's you are aware of who have recieved some form of compensation from court action in the last 5 years. Please list this by year.
5. Please provide a copy of the TfL bus specification requirements used for when bus operators procure new buses to the fleet.
We answered
TfL Ref: 0015-2425
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 2 April 2024 asking for information about assaults on bus drivers.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold the information you require.
Our staff work hard to serve the millions of customers who use the transport network every day and have the right to go about their work without fear or intimidation. We take workplace violence extremely seriously and always encourages staff to report any instance of abuse whether physical or non-physical so that preventative measures can be taken, and the strongest penalties brought against offenders.
A specialist unit within TfL works with both the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and British Transport Police (BTP) police services to investigate crimes against staff. This Workplace Violence and Aggression (WVA) team supports staff and managers, and assists the Police in the investigation of physical assault and verbal aggression against our staff, which can include public order offences and hate crime. Its purpose is to improve the quality of staff assault investigation and provide feedback to police and other criminal justice partners, as well as improve victim care and support provided by TfL.
Our answers to your specific questions are as follows:
Please clarify me with your definition of assault to its staff. (Please provide with any framework or guidance that is used)
In our TfL Workplace violence and aggression (WVA) strategy we use the following definition: “The Health and Safety Executive defines work-related violence and aggression as any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. Incidents where the person is targeted outside of work because they are seen to work on the transport network are also included. Work-related violence and aggression can take many forms including physical assault, spitting, verbal abuse, threatening behaviour, hate crime and sexual offences. It can occur in person, over the phone, in writing and through social media.”
Please see the full policy document attached – please note that the policy is only relevant for TfL directly employed staff and therefore bus drivers are not included as they are employed directly by bus operators.
Please provide statistics on London Buses of number of assaults recorded towards bus drivers in the last 5 years. Please list this by year.
Please see the data requested in the table below. Please note that the contents of this table have been calculated from offences reported to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), from incidents reported on our internal reporting platform and from incidents captured from data recording when a bus driver has called for assistance. We have been measuring workplace violence and aggression this way since the start of the 2020/21 financial year hence we are only able to supply the figures from this period.
Financial Year
Number of physical incidents against Bus Drivers
2020/21
531
2021/22
542
2022/23
482
2023/24
461
Please clarify if there are any notices related to assault / protections of staff (bus drivers) as part of the TfL Bus Specification.
Please see attached the current version of the Bus Vehicle specification. This is a live document which is regularly updated and at the time that a route is being tendered for, the supplier would need to refer to the relevant live document in operation at the time.
Please provide the number of bus drivers you are aware of who have recieved some form of compensation from court action in the last 5 years. Please list this by year.
Please note that bus drivers are employed by bus operators not by TfL, so this information would be held by individual bus operators. We have no way of reporting on any information we may hold across the organisation on any compensation received by individual bus drivers.
Please provide a copy of the TfL bus specification requirements used for when bus operators procure new buses to the fleet.
Please see our answer to point 3 above.
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 as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Sara Thomas FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
