FOI request detail

Advanced Driving Test

Request ID: FOI-0416-1718
Date published: 22 June 2017

You asked
This request is made pursuant to Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In September 2016, Transport for London and The Mayor of London published the Taxi and Private Hire Action Plan 2016. On page 9 of this document, under the ‘Enhancing Public Safety’ heading, TfL and the Mayor stated they would bring in a series of new measures for the taxi and private hire industry. Point number 7 of these measures committed TfL and the Mayor to: "Improving, by summer 2017, the standards of driving across the industry by requiring that private hire drivers pass an advanced driving test before they can be licensed or relicensed." 1. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting that you release to me any document in which TfL has conducted an assessment of the impact of this measure on the private hire industry or private hire drivers in London. 2. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting that you release to me any document relating to TfL's assessment of the potential cost to an individual private hire driver of sitting an advanced driving test - as described within this measure. 3. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting that you release to me any document in which TfL or the Mayor’s office have made an assessment of the evidential basis which allegedly justifies this measure. 4. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am requesting that you release to me any emails (sent between the dates of 13th July 2016 - 13th October 2016) which relate to this measure and which were sent between; a. Two or more members of TfL staff b. TfL staff and any external party c. TfL staff and staff of the Mayor’s office.

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-0416-1718

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 24 May 2017 asking for copies of documentation and correspondence.

 

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.

 

However, 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.

 

A remote search on all TfL mailboxes for any emails containing the keyword “Advanced Driving Test” across the specified time period was conducted. This search was stopped at around 50% of the way through having already captured over 4,500 individual emails. It is reasonable to expect that had the search continued the total figure would have exceeded this number further.

 

It should be noted that this figure will contain many emails which do not fit within the scope of your request but were caught by the initial search. When we conduct email searches we use broad search terms to ensure that all relevant emails are captured and then drill down to extract those relevant to the request. However, to do so in this instance would considerably exceed the cost limit as it would require us to manually review many thousands of 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. For example, you may wish to limit your email request to specific employees or a more narrowed time frame. Alternatively you may wish to exclude Q4 from your request which may make for a more manageable request.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lee Hill

Senior FOI Case Officer

 

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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