This is a Freedom Of Information Request regarding London Underground "Mind the Gap" Public Safety Announcements. (Please note i am requesting information about the "Mind The Gap" announcements that were recorded by actual people and NOT a synthesised electronic computer voice.) 1. Regarding The "Mind The Gap" announcements recorded by various people. Does London Underground or Transport For London or any other Transportation Authority pay any Royalties to any of the people who recorded the "Mind The gap" announcements? 2. How many professional voice over artists and voice actors were hired to record the "Mind The Gap" announcements for the London Underground throughout the years? 3. How many regular members of the public were hired to record the "Mind The Gap" annoucements for the London Underground throughout the years?(this question relates to non- professional voice over artists and voice actors.) 4. How many London Underground Stations currently use the "Mind The Gap" recordings by people, instead of a synthesised electronic voice recording? 5. How many different recordings of the "Mind The Gap" annoucements recorded by people, does the London Underground have? 6. Are the "Mind The Gap" recordings by people for the London Underground copyrighted? 7. If the "Mind The Gap" recordings by people for the London Underground, are copyrighted, which type of copyright license are they copyrighted under? 8. What format was used to record the various people who were recorded for the "Mind The Gap" announcements, for the London Underground? 9. Which person, persons, board, panel, committee, department etc, came up with the idea to have the "Mind The Gap" safety annoucements in the London Underground system? 10. Can I have audio file copies of all the "Mind The Gap" recordings that were recorded by people for the London Underground?

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TfL Ref: FOI-0609-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 13^th July 2020 asking for information about London Underground ‘Mind the Gap’ announcements.

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 some the information you require. However, to comprehensively answer all of your requests would exceed the costs limit of £450 for responding to cases, as set out in section 12 of the FOI Act. Under section 12, a public authority is not obliged to provide information if it would exceed the costs limit to determine if that information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calcuated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.

So far as I have been able to ascertain these announcements were introduced in the 1960s. Therefore, in order to source the information to answer your questions we would need to search material going back decades, prior to the existence of TfL (we hold some records relating to our predecessor bodies in archive and would need to locate and review that material). We do not believe this is possible within the 18 hour limit, particularly as it is not certain that we would be able to find the information to answer each question in any case.

In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to refine and narrow its scope, to focus on the information that is of most importance to you.

On a more general matter, please note that the impact of current circumstances on TfL’s resources means we are not able to answer FOI requests readily and we ask that you please do not make a request to us at present.

Answering FOI 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 as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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