Request ID: FOI-0706-2223 Date published: 07 July 2022
You asked
F/on from FOI-0504
I appreciate your response. I would like to modify my request to only include the Central, Northern & Piccadilly Lines.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-0706-2223/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 23 June 2022 asking for Tube Car Line Diagram stickers.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Whilst you have refined your original request, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act.
As you are aware, the requested stickers are created to update the car line diagrams on the Underground. There is no operational need to hold historic stickers going back to 2016, and searching for all stickers over a 7 year period for 3 London Underground lines would place an unreasonable burden on us, and may well only result in us advising you that these are no longer held.
Our principal duty is to provide an effective transport service for London and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort. It would be a significant distraction from our work managing the TfL network, requiring re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that your request falls under section 14(1) of the FOI Act, this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance states that a request which may fall under section 14(1) if it:
- Imposes a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details;
- Encompasses information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request;
- Creates a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions.
Our view is that all three of these examples apply in this instance.
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
