I would like to know how much it costs you to process a freedom of information request?

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TfL Ref: FOI-0912-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28^th June 2019 asking about the cost of responding to Freedom of Information requests.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. 

You asked:

“I would like to know how much it costs you to process a freedom of information request?”.

TfL does not hold a figure for how much it costs to answer FOI requests. The time taken to respond to a request depends on exactly what is asked and how easily the requested information can be sourced. However, even simple requests (for example, where the requested information is already published online) require some administration (all of our FOI cases need to be logged, acknowledged, answered, and the response then published). In most cases the FOI team have to source information from elsewhere within TfL, with those teams then having to spend time locating and retrieving the requested information. The exact amount of time spent on these activities will vary from case to case.

Note that section 12 of the FOI Act specifies that the maximum cost for responding to a request is £450 (for local government organisations such as TfL). This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equating to 18 hours work. However, the section 12 exemption only allows the following activities to be used in determining the cost of answering a case:

• determining whether the information is held;

   

• locating the information, or a document containing it;

   

• retrieving the information, or a document containing it; an

   

• extracting the information from a document containing it.

One cannot include the time taken to consider whether exemptions apply, nor the time take to redact exempt material.

If this is not the information you are looking for 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,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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