Our Ref:         FOI-0441-2021

Thank you for your request received on 19 June 2020 asking for information about the Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs) for the Streetspace Programme.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

1. All Equality Impact Assessments which have been undertaken in relation to Streetspace programme changes to the layout, use, or design of streets between 1st March 2020 and DATE OF LETTER. Please provide any documents, reports, papers for meetings, notes of meetings, emails and correspondence at which equality impacts of the schemes were discussed.
2. What consultation has been undertaken in respect of changes to the layout, use, or design of streets under the Streetspace programme between 1st March 2020 and DATE OF LETTER with disabled people and groups representing disabled people including IDAG (members). Please provide any papers for meetings, notes of meetings, emails and correspondence.

The Streetspace for London Plan seeks to respond to the current public health imperative and Government controls by helping to make space for walking, protect bus journey times and improve cycling conditions to enable people to maintain social distancing, particularly at busy times. This is to ensure that the likelihood of danger to the public by the transmission of the coronavirus is minimised. We are working to introduce temporary walking and cycling facilities across our city to make it easier and safer for people to get around.

The speed at which these measures have needed to be introduced means that TfL is not able to formally consult before temporary changes are made. New guidance was issued by the Department for Transport regarding the activity that highway and traffic authorities are expected to be undertaking along with specific temporary guidance on engagement around traffic orders.

Care has been taken in developing proposals to ensure that consideration is given to all road users, including those with protected characteristics, as well as those on lower incomes who do not have access to private cars. Due to the speed with which schemes have needed to be implemented to support London’s emergence from the Covid-19 epidemic EQIAs have not been carried out on every scheme. Instead, we have had regard to the impacts on those with protected characteristics by focusing on developing clear inclusive design guidance for Social Distancing and Cycling schemes, which are to be supported by EQIAs at a programme level (including input from IDAG). Where schemes have led to changes that impact on accessibility or inclusion we will look to mitigate any potentially negative impacts wherever possible. We are also engaging widely with stakeholders who represent older and disabled Londoners to better understand the impacts of our Streetspace plans. We will assess the impacts of our schemes on older and disabled Londoners and an understanding of any impacts will be fed into future decisions on schemes.

We are applying Regulation 12(4)(b) to your request, with regards to consultations, for ‘any papers for meetings, notes of meetings, emails and correspondence’. We believe that this part of your request is ‘manifestly unreasonable’ because providing the information you have requested would place an unreasonable burden on us at this time.

To answer your current request would take an excessive amount of staff time and resources. To establish the extent to which we hold relevant information, we would have to find, collate and gather and collate this information from the various project teams who have worked on the schemes. We have implemented circa 36 schemes so far, so we would need to collate all of the requested information for each of these schemes. Answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort and would require the redirection of limited specialist resources and the attention of staff away from their core functions who could be supporting other essential activity.

The use of this exception is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to consider whether the public interest in applying the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. We recognise that the release of information would promote accountability and transparency in public services and may help address your particular concerns. However, the time it would take to provide the information you have requested would divert a disproportionate amount of our resources from its core functions and on balance we consider that the public interest currently favours the use of the exception. As stated above, we are actively engaging with stakeholders and hope that any queries and concerns can be raised during those discussions.

The impact of current circumstances on TfL’s resources means we are not able to answer requests readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present.
 
Answering requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. In any event, please note that our response time will be affected by the current situation.

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

[email protected]