Request ID: FOI-0031-2425 Date published: 02 May 2024
You asked
For the period
from 20 September 2023 (that is, after the 'Strategic Working Group' meeting on 19 September),
to date,
please supply
minutes of meetings (agendas instead, if minutes are not yet published)
reports and other documents supplied to meeting attendees
for
any such meetings (that is, including both HS2 and TfL)
and including meetings called the
"Old Oak Common Strategic Working Group"
(or similar name)
and the body which that group apparently reports to, which is called the
"Old Oak Common Strategic Steering Group"
(or similar name)
and
any other committees/meetings/studies that report to the latter,
either on a one-off basis or longer term.
(Incidentally, the Strategic Working Group minutes of 19 September 2023 expected a meeting of the "SSG" was likely to be held on 30 October or 6 November.)
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-0031-2425
Thank you for your request received on 5 April 2024 asking for information about Old Oak Common (OOC).
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) and our information access policy.
We have been able to identify 60 meetings, although we believe other teams within the organisation may hold additional information relevant to your request. To identify the remaining meetings and locate and extract the requested documentation and undertake necessary redactions would take an excessive amount of time. Therefore, we are refusing your request under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIRs.
We consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us, and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort. It would be a significant distraction from our work managing the TfL network, requiring re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that your request falls under regulation 12(4)(b), this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources.
The use of this exception is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to consider whether the public interest in applying the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. We recognise that the release of information would promote accountability and transparency in public services and also help address your particular concerns about this issue. However, the time it would take to provide the information you have requested would divert a disproportionate amount of our resources from its core functions and on balance we consider that the public interest currently favours the use of the exception.
If you would like to resubmit your request then you may wish to amend the requested timeframe or limit the meetings you require information for. For example, you may wish to focus on the OOC Strategic Steering Group or OOC Working Group.
We will consider your request again, if you are able to narrow its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. Alternatively, if you have specific questions we will be happy to consider those.
If you are not satisfied with this response 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
