Request ID: FOI-0967-2223 Date published: 10 August 2022
You asked
How many staff involved in your PFI contracts have taken leave for stress-related illnesses since January 2021?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-0967-2223
Thank you for your request received on 21 July 2022 asking for information about stress-related leave amongst staff involved in our PFI contracts.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
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.
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.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
We do not have a central record of whether a member of staff is involved in PFI contracts, in fact that are several points at which a person may become ‘involved’ with a contract. Therefore, it is not possible to determine which employees would be covered by your request within the time provided under the Act.
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. 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.
There are currently two PFI projects, whilst we are able to identify the people working on these projects, due to the low number of staff captured any possible disclosure could raise concerns regarding section 40(2) of the FOI Act which relates to personal data and whether these persons could be identified.
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.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
