Request ID: FOI-0208-2223 Date published: 23 May 2022
You asked
I have one further enquiry which you can consider to be made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You state in your reply "you have recommenced ticket checks onboard our buses [now] national lockdowns have now been lifted". By implication your Revenue Protection Officers had no role to perform during lockdown, especially as travel volumes were at one point a mere 15% of pre-pandemic levels. I would therefore assume that those officers were 'let go' from the payroll and would want to know if not, why not.
Now you state ticket checks have recommenced, please inform me if you have a full compliment of staff specifically employed on Revenue protection. If there are vacancies, I require you to inform me of the number of vacancies and the percentage of total posts this represents. I authorise you under any relevant GDPR requirements to also make these figures known to my MP and I reserve the right to make this information available to the media, in the public interest.
We answered
TfL Ref: 0208-2223
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 27 April 2022 asking for information about our revenue protection staff. 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 the information you require. You asked: I have one further enquiry which you can consider to be made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You state in your reply "you have recommenced ticket checks onboard our buses [now] national lockdowns have now been lifted". By implication your Revenue Protection Officers had no role to perform during lockdown, especially as travel volumes were at one point a mere 15% of pre-pandemic levels. I would therefore assume that those officers were 'let go' from the payroll and would want to know if not, why not.
Now you state ticket checks have recommenced, please inform me if you have a full complement of staff specifically employed on Revenue protection. If there are vacancies, I require you to inform me of the number of vacancies and the percentage of total posts this represents. I authorise you under any relevant GDPR requirements to also make these figures known to my MP and I reserve the right to make this information available to the media, in the public interest.
Please see our answers to your questions as below
Were any RPIs ‘let go’ during the pandemic due to less revenue activity on buses during this time, and they weren’t, why not?
No officers were ‘let go’ during lock down; however, where appropriate, some officers were part of the government furlough scheme. Our officers had various duties that they completed during the lockdown including:
Face covering enforcement (on and off vehicles)
On and off bus assurance patrols
Providing assurance to bus drivers and customers that use our services that TfL is taking an active approach to keeping people safe
Customer assistance (wayfinding etc) including Nightingale Hospital
Distribution of PPE and face coverings
Static on-bus ticket checks leading to limited mobile checks and other normal business activities.
Do we have full staffing of RPI’s – if we have vacancies, how many and what the proportion is of vacancies to posts
Current Operations officers in Public Transport (formally known as RPIs) Full Time Equivalent is 143.6, from an establishment of 180 (80% staffing)
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
