Having seen a number of posters by TfL explicitly featuring Sadiq Khan's name since May 2016, I have some questions: 1) On how many TfL posters have the words 'Sadiq Khan' featured since May 2016? 2) What is the approximate PR value this form of free political advertising is worth to the Mayor? I assume this would be calculated using the price you'd otherwise charge the advertising space to third parties, but if you use a different methodology then please also provide that. 3) Can you confirm whether this advertising has come directly out of TfL's budget, with no contributions from the Mayor himself or his party?

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TfL Ref: 0260-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 26 April 2019 asking for information about advertising and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

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 the information you require. You asked:

1) On how many TfL posters have the words 'Sadiq Khan' featured since May 2016?

2) What is the approximate PR value this form of free political advertising is worth to the Mayor? I assume this would be calculated using the price you'd otherwise charge the advertising space to third parties, but if you use a different methodology then please also provide that.

3) Can you confirm whether this advertising has come directly out of TfL's budget, with no contributions from the Mayor himself or his party?

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 we do not centrally record how many advertisements feature the Mayor of London’s name nor do we do not record our advertising spend based on whether or not it includes the Mayor’s name. Therefore in order to provide you with the costs you are asking for, we would need to identify every advertisement that has included the Mayor’s name since May 2016 and then we would need to run the spend figures for each of those adverts.  We estimate that this would significantly exceed the cost limit to complete.

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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