Request ID: FOI-0082-2425 Date published: 09 May 2024
You asked
Follow-on from FOI-4567-2324:
Project Detroit Correspondence
Try "post" or "budget" or "FTE" or "resource" as additional keywords and let's limit it to 22 August 2023 to 5 September 2023.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-0082-2425
Thank you for your revised request received on 12 April 2024 asking for information about Project Detroit.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
As you are aware, when requests for email correspondence are received we can conduct company-wide email searches using keywords, dates and email addresses. The more specific a requester can be as to what they are looking for, the more we can narrow the search and therefore stand a better chance of a more relevant or focused result. A search will then return an amount of ‘hits’ which potentially contain information relating to the search terms used. Each ‘hit’ is a single email, although that email will often consist of a chain of emails containing the search term at least once.
We have carried a further search based on the revised parameters you have provided. Using ‘Project Detroit’ and the keywords provided results in almost 600 hits, if we use only ‘Detroit’ with the revised keywords this results in over 12,000 hits. We have looked at a sample of some of the emails. As previously advised, we would need to manually review the full content caught by this request in order to determine whether any information contained within them engaged one or more exceptions from disclosure under the EIRs and, therefore, needed to be redacted. Given the time it would take to do this and the diversion of limited and specialist resources it would require, we are applying Regulation 12(4)(b) as we believe that the request is ‘manifestly unreasonable’.
There are limits on the time that TfL are required to spend determining whether TfL holds the information you are requesting and the time spent locating, retrieving and extracting it. Please note, as emails contain a significant amount of personal data such as phone numbers and email addresses that would need to be redacted. This would also be true of any additional information that warrants consideration of any additional exceptions.
You can resubmit a narrower request, however it may be difficult to revise the request in a manner that still provides helpful information. If there are specific questions then these may be easier to process.
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 may help address your particular concerns about this issue. However, the time it would take to provide the information you have requested in a wide ranging, and unfocussed request 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. As you may also be aware, there is already a significant amount of published information on this subject through multiple other FOI requests which may be of value to you and can be seen here: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/search?Query=detroit&Sort=date%2Cdesc&TimePeriod=-1&PageSize=10.
We will consider your request again, if you are able to narrow its scope so that we can more easily process the full extent of the information you are seeking.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
