TfL Ref: 0856-1920

Thank you for your email received by us on 24 June 2019 asking for information about Traffic Management Plans, Impact Assessments and copies of all communications between Transport for London (TfL), the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Metropolitan Police in relation to the Extinction Rebellion protests in Central London.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked for the following information:

Extinction Rebellion Protests in Central London commencing 15 April 2019.

1. Copies of all Traffic Management Plans put in place (including dates and times) throughout the protests

2. Copies of all Impact Assessments carried out (including dates and times) throughout the protests – in particular at Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Street and Oxford Circus, Parliament Square and the respective surrounding areas.

3. Copies of all communications, notes and records of communications between TFL and with i) the Mayor of London and his office ii) officers within the Metropolitan Police (including Gold, Silver and Bronze Commanders) iii) Westminster Council

For clarification, our records show that Gold Command was T/Commander Elaine Van- Orden, Silver Command was Superintendent Mike Hill and Bronze Commanders (not limited to) Chief Inspector Duncan, McMillan and Chief Superintendent Colin Wingrove.

Unfortunately, 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. We have conducted a preliminary email search of all messages sent to and from the above referenced organisations containing the keywords ‘extinction rebellion’, ‘protest’ or ‘protestors’ and this produced over 3,000 results within a timeframe of 14 April 2019 to 30 April 2019. Processing your request would require us to manually review these results for those that are directly relevant and it is likely to lead to further searches being conducted to ensure that all relevant information was caught. Conducting such a process would considerably exceed the cost limit.

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request 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. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. For instance, if you require specific information you may find it more beneficial to ask specific questions for defined recorded information rather than an email trawl which is more likely to result in a refusal. It is likely that we would be able to answer Questions One and Two within the cost limit if you choose to refine your request in this way.

If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time or specific individuals/departments within the organisation.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do 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.

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London