I would like to ask for statistics for the last 10 years showing the number of fines issued and the numbe of prosecutions imposed on people caught tavelling without a valid ticket, with a breakdown per ethnicity. For all cases where there was only a fine issued (without court proceedings) I would like to know on what mitigating grounds these decisions were based. I am interested in data for London Underground, Overground, TfL Rail, DLR and London Buses.

---

TfL Ref: 1008-1920

Thank you for your request received by us on 5 July 2019 asking for information about fines and prosecutions.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

statistics for the last 10 years showing the number of fines issued and the number of prosecutions imposed on people caught travelling without a valid ticket, with a breakdown per ethnicity.

I am interested in data for London Underground, Overground, TfL Rail, DLR and London Buses.

We do not hold any type of information about the ethnicity of passengers being issued with either penalty fares or prosecutions.

Fines are imposed on defendants by the Courts and as Transport for London (TfL) do not issue fines there are no cases where a fine is issued without Court Proceedings.

The numbers of cases that were prosecuted in Court are provided below. TfL only began managing prosecutions for all modes in the financial year of 2016/17, although we can provide this information for the London Buses network from 2011/12. We are unable to provide the full ten year period requested as the previous database used is no longer accessible.

Cases that went to Court:

2018/19

Buses - 21,646,
London Underground - 5,166,
TfL Rail - 745,
London Overground 2,018,
Docklands Light Railway (DLR) - 88

2017/18

Buses - 15,179,
London Underground - 3,546,
TfL Rail - 949,
London Overground - 365,
DLR 69

2016/17

Buses - 13,251,
London Underground 5,338,
TfL Rail 601,
(London Overground & DLR: no figures available)

London Buses

2015/16 - 14,700
2014/15 - 10,127
2013/14 - 14,027
2012/13 - 8,281
2011/12 - 12,654

For all cases where there was only a fine issued (without court proceedings) I would like to know on what mitigating grounds these decisions were based.

We do not hold this information. Whilst there are reports received by the Independent Appeals Service (IAP) that are not actioned/prosecuted because of mitigation, TfL has no way of producing a report that outlines all the reasons for ‘no further actioning’ these cases as it is not recorded in the requested format.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, 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

Back to top

---