Can I request any records of phone calls, meetings, and/or emails between TfL and executives from the US scooter company Lime between July 2017 and 12 July 2018. Specifically, any records of conversations about: - Bringing electric scooters to London - Regulation around bringing electric scooters to London

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Our Ref:          FOI-0991-1819 / FOI-1032-1819

Thank you for your requests received on 4 July 2018 asking for records of phone calls, meetings, and/or emails between TfL and the US scooter companies Bird and Lime.

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.

Please find attached e-mails between TfL and Bird exchanged between November 2017 and 8 July 2018. Members of our Innovations Directorate met with Patrick Studener of Bird on 10 April 2018, this meeting was held to help Bird understand current UK legislation and how this could impact the introduction of electric scooters. We do not hold meeting minutes but the attached e-mails include a chain following up from what was discussed at the meeting. We do not hold records of any phone calls.

In accordance with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply some of the information as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under section 43(2).

In this instance the section 43(2) exemption has been applied to some information contained within the documents as disclosure would be likely to prejudice Bird’s commercial interests. There are several locations in which Bird do not currently operate, disclosure of this information could prejudice their ability to introduce their services at these locations as their competitive edge would inevitably be prejudiced by disclosure of their plans.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. TfL recognises the need for openness and transparency by public authorities but in this instance the public interest in ensuring that we do not prejudice a third party’s commercial interests, as well as maintaining our ability to manage our network, outweighs the general public interest in increasing transparency of our processes.

Two members of our Innovations Directorate had a teleconference with Caen Contee from LimeBike on 24 May 2018 to discuss LimeBike’s London plans, both in relation to dockless cycle hire and dockless scooters. Please see the attached correspondence between us and LimeBike. We do not hold any minutes from the teleconference.

Please note that in accordance with TfL’s obligations under Data Protection legislation some personal data has been removed, as required by section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first principle which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not satisfied one of the conditions which would make the processing ‘fair’.

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

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