FOI Request - Private Hire Complaints & Licence Investigations
Request ID: FOI-0811-2223 Date published: 26 July 2022
You asked
Dear Sir/Madam
I wish to make further freedom of information requests.
Please can the following be answered.
1. Please can you explain TfL's process following receipt of a PHV/105 form?
2. Do all PHV/105 forms received result in a letter to the driver requesting written response to the allegations?
3. Following receipt of written responses to investigation letters how many licences have been revoked per year since 2017/18?
4. Please can you inform me of the number of licence revocations per year since 2017/18?
5. How many revocations were overturned on receipt of written responses per year since 2017/18?
6. How many licence revocations have been appealed to the magistrates court since 2017/18?
7. How many licence revocations have been overturned following submission of appeal (prior to hearing) to the magistrates court since 2017/18?
8. How many licence revocations have been overturned at appeal hearing at the magistrates court?
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-0811-2223/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 6 July 2022 asking for information about Private Hire licences.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.
I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. However, 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 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’.
In order to answer your request we would need manually check the driver records for each licence that has been revoked during the 5 years requested, in order to compile the requested information. This would entail checking over 3,000 records, and would take an excessive amount of time.
To help bring the cost of responding to your requests within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your requests to concentrate on matters which are important to you.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request. If you have specific questions relating to these topics we may be more easily able to respond to these than to a request for any information held.
If you are not satisfied with this response 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
