Our Ref:         FOI-1005-1718

Thank you for your request received on 28 July 2017 asking for information about employee numbers.

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 the information you require. You asked:

1. Can you provide us with the total number of employees you currently have?

There are currently 27,138 employees, of which 25,518 are permanent or fixed-term (FTC) employees and 1,620 temporary agency employees.

2. How many of these employees work on your telephone lines and back office? Customer Service, Travel Information all inclusive. please provide figures.

There are 3,523 employees, this includes agency workers utilised in the Contact Centre and Travel Information Areas, London Underground Customer Service Assistant (CSA) roles (i.e. station staff) do not use temporary agency workers. 3,269 are permanent or FTC employees and 254 are temporary agency workers.

Within Customer Contact & Travel Information there are 543 total staff, of which 289 are permanent or FTC employees, and 254 are temporary agency workers. This includes everyone in these areas, including managers, supervisors and support staff.

For London Underground CSAs, there are 2,980 permanent and FTC employees.

3. How many Band 2 and 3 managers do you have at your office in Pier Walk North Greenwich?

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.

In order to provide the requested information we would have to identify which members of staff are Band 2 or 3, and whether they were in management roles. We would then have to check where they are based as we do not have a central record of where all employees are based. It should also be noted that some employees may not have a fixed location due to the nature of their role so any information that could be provided may not be comprehensive.

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 TfL. 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, geographical area or specific departments of TfL.

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.

If this is not the information you are looking for please feel free to contact me.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]