Our Ref:         FOI-0018-1920

Thank you for your clarifying your request received on 31 March 2019 asking for information about the Jubilee Line.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and TfL’s information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested 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 in excess of £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.

The information you have requested is not stored centrally. We have established that the potentially relevant information which we hold covers a significant period of time and comprises of hundreds of potentially relevant emails, all of which would have to be reviewed, along with many other documents held in various separate storage systems by numerous people within the organisation.

In addition, by their nature, emails contain a significant amount of personal data such as phone numbers and email addresses and so, whilst this process of redaction does not feature as part of our considerations on whether the cost limit might apply, the burden created by non-specific requests for emails is significant and this should be borne in mind before submitting requests of this nature.

We therefore strongly recommend you outline, as clearly and concisely as possible, precisely the information and types of document you require. Requests that lack a clear focus are more likely to lead to concerns about the processing time required to meet our obligations under the FOI Act. If you have specific questions regarding the Jubilee Line then this may make it possible to provide you with information, rather than a request for correspondence.

If there is a section of the Jubilee Line that you have particular interest in, for example the re-lining of the Baker Street to Bond Street section (http://content.tfl.gov.uk/rup-20150716-part-1-item06-jubilee-line-tunnel-works.pdf) or the Seepage Grouting Works between Bond Street and Green Park, then we may be able to provide you information on this. In addition, you may wish to narrow the timeframe you are seeking the information for.

We also do not hold a central record on the number of days worked on stabilising, fortifying and/or strengthening the Jubilee Line and have been advised that to provide this information alone would exceed the 18 hour limit due to the way it is recorded as we would need to consult several different resources to extract this data.

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. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by Transport for London. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of TfL.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does 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 note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please feel free 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

[email protected]