Request ID: FOI-0532-2425 Date published: 23 May 2024
You asked
1. Please could you provide me with tables, broken down by month, showing the numbers of items of property that were (i) handed in as lost and (ii) returned, broken down by the category of the property for the 2023 calendar year?
2. How much money was collected by TfL by auctioning/selling off items that had been lost by passengers and then not reclaimed in each of the last financial years (2022/23)?
3. For the 2022/23 financial years please state the three individual sales that made the most money. Please state what the lots consisted of and how much money TfL received for each item?
4. In the 2023 calendar year please state how many of the following items were (i) logged as lost property by TfL and (ii) returned to the owner? (a) wigs, (b) sex toy/aids, (c) crutches, (d) prescription Viagra, (e) false limbs and (f) Security passes to the Houses of Parliament
We answered
Our ref: FOI-0532-2425/GH
Thank you for your emails asking for information about lost property.
Firstly we have investigated the reason we did not receive your original request. We believe that our Firewall has blocked your request due to some of the Lost Property items listed. This would explain why we received your follow up emails but not the ones which contained the actual wording of your request. We also note that similar difficulties arose when you made a similar request last year.
Your request has now been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold some of the information you require.
Please could you provide me with tables, broken down by month, showing the numbers of items of property that were (i) handed in as lost and (ii) returned, broken down by the category of the property for the 2023 calendar year?
We are currently unable to provide this information, as we have experienced some issues with the data, and resolving these issues will 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 requests 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. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’.
However, we are working to finalise the data and hope this will be completed by the end of June. We will then provide you with this information and also update the published Lost Property Office transparency data which is available here: https://tfl.gov.uk/help-and-contact/lost-property#on-this-page-6.
How much money was collected by TfL by auctioning/selling off items that had been lost by passengers and then not reclaimed in each of the last financial years (2022/23)?
Income from lost property sales for 2022/23 was £193,231.39. This income was then reinvested into the running of the Lost Property Office.
For the 2022/23 financial years please state the three individual sales that made the most money. Please state what the lots consisted of and how much money TfL received for each item?
Product Title
Settlement to TfL
Apple MacBook Pro 14" A2442 (2021) Laptop 512 GB SSD 16GB RAM M1 Pro Chip Mac OS
£1,043.25
Christian Dior DIORADDICT Shoulder Bag Chain Crossbody Green Cannage Leather
£570.98
Honeywell MiniRae Lite Hand Held VOC Monitor 5000 PPM Torch Rugged Gas Detector
£560.15
In the 2023 calendar year please state how many of the following items were (i) logged as lost property by TfL and (ii) returned to the owner? (a) wigs, (b) sex toy/aids, (c) crutches, (d) prescription Viagra, (e) false limbs and (f) Security passes to the Houses of Parliament
As explained above, the data for 2022/23 is currently being finalised and we expect to have this information by the end of June 2024 We will therefore provide it to you as soon as it is available.
Please let me know if this is not the information you are looking for. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
