Request ID: FOI-0026-2223 Date published: 04 May 2022
You asked
Please provide copies of all of the drawings issued by Crossrail to the Tenderers at the time of tender for the Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot at Old Oak Common.
We answered
TfL Ref: 0026-2123
Thank you for your request received by us on 4 April 2022 asking for information about drawings issued by Crossrail.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked for:
drawings issued by Crossrail to the Tenderers at the time of tender for the Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot at Old Oak Common
I can confirm that whilst we hold the information you require, this is being refused under section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 14 applies where meeting a request is likely to cause a disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or distress, and where its impact on a public authority cannot be justified.
In this case, the exemption applies given the amount of effort that would be required to scrutinise the material in question in contrast to its limited public interest. We can advise that there are 744 individual drawings, each of which we would need to review in detail due to potential security risks from their disclosure. Redactions on this basis would be required, which would be a burdensome task given the volume of material involved. To explain further, disclosing any of these drawings could prejudice the security of the depot’s assets and operations, on account of containing design details of safety, security and communications systems and amongst other factors, utility operations, which could endanger the safety of both staff and the general public if released in the public domain. It is therefore very likely that one or more exemptions would need to be considered against large portions of the requested information.
We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that your request falls under section 14(1) of the FOI Act, this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources, however, we must consider potential disclosure of material to be to the public at large. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance provides the following examples of a request which may fall under section 14(1): - Imposes a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details; Encompasses information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request; - Creates a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions. Our view is that two of these examples apply in this instance.
Therefore we are refusing your request under s.14 of the FOI Act. Whilst we recognise the requested information will be of interest to some people, we do not consider that the wider public interest is served by the diversion of resources that would be necessary to answer this request, especially given the potential detriment to depot and public security, if we were to comply with your request.
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
Jasmine Howard FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
