output monitoring data for Active Travel Fund schemes
Request ID: FOI-0187-2122 Date published: 26 July 2021
You asked
Dear TFL FOI,
On November 23rd a letter was issued to Gareth Powell from Rupert Furness at DfT stating the terms of the active travel fund.
On page two (the relevant paragraph is attached to this email as an image)
Stats that TfL will be providing the DfT with the output monitoring data for:
A) when schemes are complete (installed)
B) at 6 months after completion
C) at 12 months after completion
Please therefore release all of this data which relates to environmental changes and plans which affects every london resident, business owner and student - of which environmental matters must be answered and provided for by law.
Please ensure all evaluation data for A & B above are released for each borough, specifically Enfield
Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 10 April, 28 April and 4 May 2021.
You have now made a total of 7 FOI requests to TfL in a continuous period since 8 March 2021 up to and including the date of your most recent FOI request of 4 May 2021. Because of this, we are now applying an aggregate cost limit to the requests referenced above.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 exempts public authorities from the obligation to disclose the information requested, if the cost of doing so exceeds a threshold prescribed by the Secretary of State (which is set at £450 or 18 hours of work at £25 per hour under the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.). These Regulations allow authorities to aggregate the costs of replying to requests for information where two or more requests are made by one person (or by different people who appear to be acting in concert) within a period of 60 working days, when the requests relate, to any extent, to the same or similar information.
This means that Section 12 of the Act allows TfL to refuse a request for information when the aggregate cost of replying to such requests exceeds the threshold of 18 hours’ work.
Without taking into account any processing time from your previous requests, we consider that to respond to the three current requests listed above would exceed 18 hours to locate, extract and collate the information. The information you have requested across your requests contain a significant number of questions (some of which relate to information over several years) and include requests for information that would require trawling through significant amount of correspondence to ascertain what, if any, information is held.
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. As we are issuing a refusal notice in relation to the aggregated cost limit you may wish to revise your requests and prioritise which information you require within the 18 hour limit, ensuring your request is as specific as possible.
We also suggest that, before submitting future requests, you consider which information is of the highest priority to ensure that the processing time available is spent on the information that is of most importance to you. Please also take into account the guidance and advice provided by the ICO such as the “dos and don’ts” published on its website here: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information/ which will help you ensure you are able to make the best use of the FOI Act.
