Our Ref: FOI-0999-1718

Thank you for your request received on 27 July 2017 asking for information about major bus incidents.

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  hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

I would like to know all the major incidents reported to Tfl which resulted in the bus company carrying out an investigation from January 2017 till end of July 2017.

The areas of information I would like to know are serious incidents taken place that involved a bus.

• Security - Where a driver is arrested
• Major road traffic collisions with a fixed objected, living human, cyclist or motorist
• Lastly all fatalities

If you could please provide details of the investigation carried out by the bus company and/or police and what actions the bus companies have taken and also what action TFL have taken.

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.

The information you have requested is not held in a manner that can be easily extracted. In order to provide details of each investigation we would have to go through any reports and associated correspondence we have regarding the incident. Some of this information may also be exempt if it forms part of an ongoing legal case.

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 example, you may wish to refine your request to information on fatalities and/or events which we give a priority notification to, or by reducing the period of time covered by your request or limiting it to just a summary of the incidents, and not details of the investigations or actions taken following the incident.

We also publish some information on safety incidents on our website that you may wish to look at should you wish to submit a further request:

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/bus-safety-data

This shows hospitalised injuries and fatalities (i.e. serious incidents) and the other road user involved, as well as the outcomes of investigations for fatal incidents.

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 Transport for London. 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.

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.

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 feel free to contact me.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
FOI Case Officer
[email protected]