Request ID: FOI-0102-2223 Date published: 13 May 2022
You asked
I hereby request copies of the following documents under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as a matter of urgency:
1. Documents referring to the reliability of TFL’s (or Capita’s) online payment system for taking payment for the Congestion Charge (the “System”), the performance of the System or any issues with the same.
2. A copy of the review conducted by TFL into payment issues, referred to in the article published in The Guardian on 25 August 20191 as explained by Paul Cowperthwaite (General Manager of Road User Charging at TFL) as follows:2
“We’re sorry we didn’t immediately cancel the penalty charge notice when evidence of an attempt to pay was provided. We have cancelled the notice and will review how we handle these rare issues. We’ve contacted Ms Sprackling to let her know.”
3. Documents relating to the review or The Guardian article, in each case as referred to at paragraph 2 above. (For the avoidance of doubt, this includes communications with Capita in relation to the same).
4. The guidance prepared by TFL on the cancellation of Congestion Charge PCNs when evidence of an attempt to pay is provided, and any document recording the number of instances in the period from 2019 to date where PCNs have been cancelled on the basis the customer has made an attempt to pay.
5. Documents and communications relating to the “thorough investigation” that TFL has conducted into PCN number TZXXX (as referred to in TFL’s letter to me of 29 March 2022).
1 Available online here: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/aug/25/congestion-charge-pay-fines-scam-websites
2 Emphasis added.
Please note that my correspondence address has recently changed from XXXX and I trust you will update your records accordingly.
The information has been requested for the purposes of an appeal to a Road User Charging Adjudicator at London Tribunals. This appeal needs to be lodged by 26 April 2022. Please therefore respond as soon as possible and in any event by 25 April 2022.
I look forward to hearing from you.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-0102-2223/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 13 April 2022 asking for information about Congestion Charging.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.
I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. However, 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 requests 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. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’.
For example, you have asked for:
1. Documents referring to the reliability of TFL’s (or Capita’s) online payment system for taking payment for the Congestion Charge (the “System”), the performance of the System or any issues with the same.
To search for this information, over an unspecified time period, would take an excessive amount of time. We would need to conduct a remote email search of all TfL email accounts for any emails containing broad terms such as ‘Congestion Charge’ and ‘payment system’ or ‘performance’. This would identify a huge number of emails – each of these hits would need to be manually reviewed to see if they were in fact relevant to your request and then extract and compile those that are relevant. For such a large number of results, this process would exceed the cost limit explained above.
To help bring the cost of responding to your requests within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your request to specific areas of Congestion Charging that are of interest to you, including most precise keywords to assist with locating information that is of interest. If you have specific questions relating to these topics we may be more easily able to respond to these than to a request for all documents held, as this can often incorporate a significant amount of information that is not of interest.
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. If you have specific questions relating to these topics we may be more easily able to respond to these than to a request for any information held.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
