Ikea logos appearing on the new London Underground tube map
Request ID: FOI-0391-2223 Date published: 01 June 2022
You asked
I notice on your new tube map here:
https://tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/standard-tube-map.pdf
There is the following shown on the map:
A. An Ikea logo next to Ampere Way station.
B. An Ikea logo next to Hammersmith station.
C. An Ikea logo next to Neasden station.
D. An Ikea logo next to North Greenwich station.
E. An Ikea logo next to Tottenham Hale station.
F. An Ikea logo in the key of the map.
Therefore i would like to know:
1. Are Ikea paying you to put their logos on your tube map.
2. If so how much are Ikea paying you to put their logos on your tube map.
3. Have Ikea only paid you for the current edition or is the payment for future editions of tube maps too.
4. Please attach all emails and discussions and minutes of meetings and documents that you hold regarding putting Ikea logos on your tube map. This should include all internal emails within TFL between different people within TFL as well as emails to and from Ikea and emails to and from anyone else. Of course you can redact any names and personal details.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-0391-2223
Thank you for your request received on 21 May 2022 asking for information about the sponsorship of the London Underground map by IKEA.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require. You asked:
1. Are Ikea paying you to put their logos on your tube map. 2. If so how much are Ikea paying you to put their logos on your tube map. 3. Have Ikea only paid you for the current edition or is the payment for future editions of tube maps too.
Please refer to our response to a previous FOI request on the same topic:
4. Please attach all emails and discussions and minutes of meetings and documents that you hold regarding putting Ikea logos on your tube map. This should include all internal emails within TFL between different people within TFL as well as emails to and from Ikea and emails to and from anyone else. Of course you can redact any names and personal details.
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.
When requests for email correspondence are received the FOI Case Management team are able to conduct company wide email searches using keywords, dates and email addresses. The more specific a requester can be as to what they are looking for, the more we can narrow the search and therefore stand a better chance of a more relevant or focused result. A search will then return an amount of ‘hits’ which potentially contain information relating to the search terms used. Each ‘hit’ is a single email, although that email will often consist of a chain of emails containing the search term at least once.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
We have done an initial search for all emails held by the person who had been corresponding primarily with IKEA has returned over 350 hits. A brief review of the results indicates that we would need to broaden the search in order to capture the requested correspondence between TfL and IKEA. Additionally, as you have also requested internal emails this would further broaden the search so there would potentially be many more emails captured. We would have to manually review all of the emails identified by the search in order to extract and collate the relevant emails.
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 consider limiting your request to a specific period of time and suggest keywords that you would like us to search against. Alternatively, if you have specific questions then we may be able to process these within the appropriate limit.
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
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
