TfL Ref: 0122-1718
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 17 April 2017 asking for information about our Congestion Charge AutoPay system.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require.
Request
Please can you provide the following information in relation to the Congestion Charge AutoPay system:
- On average, how many minutes of administrative activity are required to be completed by a member of staff in relation to: a) an initial AutoPay vehicle registration via either a payment card or a Direct Debit; b) subsequent annual renewals for the same vehicle.
We do not hold this information. Day-to-day operation of the Congestion Charging Scheme, including the administration of Auto Pay accounts, is undertaken by our service provider, Capita. There is no requirement within the contract for Capita to report to us the number of minutes spent on either of the activities you have specified. For your information, a copy of the contract can be found on our website at: https://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/london-road-user-charging-agreement.
- Other than staffing, what other direct costs do you incur as a result of administering the AutoPay system, for each individual vehicle registered, and which would be funded from the annual £10 charge?
The Scheme is governed by the Congestion Charging Consolidated Scheme Order which sets out that there is a charge of £10 for registering any vehicle on an Auto Pay account and a further annual charge of £10 for each vehicle remaining on that Auto Pay account. Therefore payment of the annual charge is a legal requirement rather than a reimbursement of costs incurred by TfL. A copy of the Scheme Order can be found on our website at: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/consolidated-congestion-charging-scheme-order.pdf.
3a) How many vehicles are currently registered with the AutoPay system?
As at 27 April 2017, the total number of vehicles registered on Auto Pay accounts is 427,944.
3b) How many of those vehicles have been registered for longer than 365 days?
We can only provide this information by ‘registration’ year. This is because, when a vehicle is added to an Auto Pay account by the Account User, it is registered for a distinct period of one calendar year beginning with the date of registration, rather than a rolling period beginning with the date of registration. Therefore if the registration is renewed, or if the vehicle is removed from the account and re-registered at a later date, the vehicle is then registered for another complete calendar year. As at 27 April 2017, the number of vehicles registered on Auto Pay accounts for more than one ‘registration’ year is 88,136. Please note we are unable to confirm how many of these vehicles have been registered for consecutive ‘registration’ years.
3c) Of those vehicles registered for more than 365 days, how many vehicles incurred a daily charge on fewer than 10 occasions within the last 365 days?
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.
The Congestion Charging Operation moved to a new system on 26 September 2016. Information about Auto Pay charges was migrated to the new system within individual accounts, however this information was not migrated within our reporting system. Since we no longer have access to the old reporting system, in order to provide the information requested, we would have to manually check the accounts for each of the above 88,136 vehicles, which would exceed the cost limit. 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.
We can confirm however that 30, 277 of the above 88,136 vehicles have been charged for driving within the Congestion Charging zone on fewer than 10 occasions since 26 September 2016.
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
Sara Thomas
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
