Thank you for this reply. I have to say I find it wholly unresponsive to the serious issues of substance we have raised. If TfL is unwilling to sit down for serious talks with the informed community, substituting instead late advertised "drop-in" sessions, calculated to atomise the reception of comment and concern, then we shall have to proceed more formally. Accordingly, we now make the following FoI requests: •for all appraisals conducted by or on behalf of TfL of the depression now appeared in Kennington Park and any connection with the undertaking of TfL NLE works there - the following link refers; United Kingdom Relative Deformation Map •for the options considered, and their appraisal and consultees, in relation to the construction of the TWAO authorised cross passages at Kennington Station, and the basis for concluding that it was preferable to close the Northern line Bank platforms for the 4 months or so proposed, as opposed to other options •for all correspondence and accounts of meetings in relation to the safety of Kennington Station from 2012 to date with each of the following control authorities or their officers: o the Health and Safety Executive o the Office of Rail Regulation and their successor body, the Office of Road and Rail, and o the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).

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TfL Ref: 0203-1819

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 24 April 2018 asking for information about the Northern Line Extension (NLE) .

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy.  I can confirm we do hold some of the information you require.  You asked: we now make the following FoI requests:

• for all appraisals conducted by or on behalf of TfL of the depression now appeared in Kennington Park and any connection with the undertaking of TfL NLE works there - the following link refers; United Kingdom Relative Deformation Map
• for the options considered, and their appraisal and consultees, in relation to the construction of the TWAO authorised cross passages at Kennington Station, and the basis for concluding that it was preferable to close the Northern line Bank platforms for the 4 months or so proposed, as opposed to other options
• for all correspondence and accounts of meetings in relation to the safety of Kennington Station from 2012 to date with each of the following control authorities or their officers:
• the Health and Safety Executive
• the Office of Rail Regulation and their successor body, the Office of Road and Rail, and
• the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).

Unfortunately, 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.

We have estimated that it would significantly exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. This is because to search our records to identify, locate and extract any documents which may be captured by the part of your request that asks for,  ‘any connection (of the depression) with TfL NLE works (in Kennington Park)’, would involve the sifting through of a significant amount of information relating to tunnelling, as well as construction of the supporting vent shafts, and that this on its own would exceed the cost limit under FOI. Additionally, to locate and extract information requested in the part of your request that asks for, ‘ all correspondence and accounts of meetings in relation to the safety of Kennington Station from 2012 to date with each of the following control authorities or their officers; the Health and Safety Executive; the Office of Rail Regulation and their successor body, the Office of Road and Rail, and; the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA)’ would also involve searching the individual email accounts of every person who has been involved in the NLE project which is likely to involve reviewing 1000’s of emails to ascertain if they contain any of the information captured by this part of your request.

In relation to your first point, our understanding is that ‘appraisals’ refers to the work that is done of something that has happened, in this case the depression. We sent out a statement in an community update on 1 May 2018 but the depression was predicted in advance, therefore the only work that took place was in checking that what happened or took place was as predicted (or within reasonable tolerances of it). As such there wasn’t an post-event appraisal. Therefore we do not hold any information on this part of your request.

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. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do 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.

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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