FOI request detail

Fact finding interviews

Request ID: FOI-0226-2425
Date published: 13 May 2024

You asked

Follow-up to FOI-3699-2324: Following your response and refusal of my FOI request, could I please refine my request by narrowing down the time period of my request to the three (3) months between April and June 2023? I trust that this amendment would ensure that it meets the criteria set and that my FOI request will be looked into as a matter of urgency?

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-0226-2425

Thank you for your further request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18th April 2024.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. 

As I understand it, you are requesting the following information for the period 1st April 2023 to 30th June 2023:
 
  1. The number of staff that have been stood down within London Underground
  2. What grade the enforcing manager was
  3. Whether HR/ER was contacted prior to the standing down
  4. If the standing down from duty was upheld or squashed afterwards.
  5. The number of fact-finding interviews under the LUL Discipline at Work procedure or Attendance at Work procedure that have been carried out where representation has been allowed for the member of staff being interviewed.

In answer to Question 1, in the timeframe specified 199 employees in London Underground were stood down / suspended (this does not include those who were stood down before April where their suspension carried on into April, May or June). In relation to Question 5, there were 55 disciplinary cases raised between April and June 2023

In answer to your other questions, I am afraid that it remains the case that the information cannot be sourced within the £450 costs limit for responding to FOI cases. This information is not recorded centrally by our HR team, and to find the answers we would have to review each individual case and liaise with managers individually at the local level to source answers. For example, when an employee is stood down that fact is almost always entered on SAP (our central HR reporting system) by an area administrator or Employee Services, rather than a line manager or supervisor in the business area. As such, there is no central record of who stood them down, and no central record of whether HR/ER was contacted prior to them being stood down. To determine exactly what is held and to then source it we would have to work backwards, identifying the 199 employees from the central record and who their managers are, and then liaising with each manager directly to see what information is held at the local level to then collate the answers. Given the numbers involved this would have to be done in its entirety at a rate of one case every 5.5 minutes (18 hours divided by 199). This is not achievable. Finding the remaining information to answer Q5 would add to the burden further.

Note that it is difficult to estimate how long it would take to answer these questions exactly, and difficult to suggest what timeframe it might be possible to cover. Even for a far smaller number, such as only one months’ worth (which, based on the figures above, we might assume would be in the region of 66 cases) it would remain the case that it would not be possible to source all of the information within the costs limit. Should you wish to refine your request I would therefore suggest that rather than continually narrow the timeframe you may want to consider instead what information you actually require and why, and focus on what can be reported centrally.

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

Yours sincerely,

David Wells
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

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