Please can I get the total number of dormant Oyster Cards (where dormant means "not used in the last 12 months"), grouped by the following balances (i.e. £5 steps): - More than £0.00 and less than or equal to £5.00 - More than £5.00 and less than or equal to £10.00 - More than £10.00 and less than or equal to £15.00 - More than £15.00 and less than or equal to £20.00 - More than £20.00 and less than or equal to £25.00 - More than £25.00 and less than or equal to £30.00 - More than £30.00 and less than or equal to £35.00 - More than £35.00 and less than or equal to £40.00 - More than £40.00 and less than or equal to £45.00 - More than £45.00 and less than or equal to £50.00 - More than £50.00 and less than or equal to £55.00 - More than £55.00 and less than or equal to £60.00 - More than £60.00 and less than or equal to £65.00 - More than £65.00 and less than or equal to £70.00 - More than £70.00 and less than or equal to £75.00 - More than £75.00 and less than or equal to £80.00 - More than £80.00 and less than or equal to £85.00

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TfL Ref: FOI-0510-1920

Thank you for your email of 20^th May 2019 asking for information about ‘dormant’ Oyster cards.

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

I can confirm that we hold the requested information. However, we estimate that 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, and then locating, retrieving or 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. While the raw data to answer your questions is held on our systems, obtaining it in the format requested would require the development of a new reporting mechanism, including the development of new code. We believe this would take in excess of the 18-hour threshold for responding to FOI cases. To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing or reframing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking.

Notwithstanding the above, note that information about Oyster card usage can be found on the TfL website here:

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/oyster-card#on-this-page-1

The spreadsheet titled “Oyster card balances and deposits up to March 2019” found on that page includes a table showing the number of Oyster cards that have not been used for more than 12 months; the total balance of pay as you go credit stored on the cards; and the average balance per card. The maximum pay as you go credit that can be held on an Oyster card is £90. Of the 53.1 million live cards that have not been used for more than one year, only 706 cards in circulation have this. It is also important to note that pay as you go credit on Oyster cards does not expire.

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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