Please provide maintenance records for each of your ticket machines for the past year (12 months ago to now) showing all faults and problems that have occurred on each machine and showing when the machine has been out of service. This includes ticket machines at stations for: London Underground, London Overground, TFL Rail, Buses, Cable Car, Croydon Tram, Docklands Light Railway and any other places you have ticket machines.

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TfL Ref: 0833-1819

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 27 June 2018 asking for maintenance records for each of our ticket machines for the past year.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold some of the information you require.  You asked: Please provide maintenance records for each of your ticket machines for the past year (12 months ago to now) showing all faults and problems that have occurred on each machine and showing when the machine has been out of service. This includes ticket machines at stations for: London Underground, London Overground, TFL Rail, Buses, Cable Car, Croydon Tram, Docklands Light Railway and any other places you have ticket machines.

However, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act. After reviewing a sample of our records we consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us. 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 one of the indicators of a request which may fall under section 14(1) is that it “appears to be part of a completely random approach, lacks any clear focus, or seems to have been solely designed for the purpose of ‘fishing’ for information without any idea of what might be revealed.”

The ICO guidance provides the following examples of a ‘fishing expedition’ 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. Firstly, TfL do not manage devices on behalf of DLR, EAL and Trams and whilst we manage some devices on London Overground and TfL Rail, they also have other machines managed by themselves (or their contractors - ARL / MTR).

To identify, gather and compile all the information you have asked for over the last 12 months would be a significant task. By its nature, we feel this wide ranging and non-specific request will very likely encompass information which is only of limited value. In that respect, it is noteworthy that your request is not for information on any specific ticket machine or even Tube station - instead you have simply asked the maintenance records for every ticket machine for the last 12 months.

We consider the burden of retrieving, reviewing and compiling the information would be disproportionate to the benefit of providing it. Therefore, due to the wide and unfocused scope of your request, we are refusing it under s.14 of the FOI Act. If you would like to re-submit a more focused, specific request then we will, of course, consider it. For example, a request for information on a particular, specific, subject or ticket machine breakdown history.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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