TfL runs a bus status page on its website which includes information on bus diversions, early terminations etc. In a recent exchange on Twitter, after I queried why several diversions were not listed on that bus status page (and thus no one knows about them until they get to the bus stop), the TfL twitter team responded saying that due to „staffing issues“, the bus status page was not (fully? at all?) being updated at the moment. The tweet where they said this is here: https://twitter.com/tflbusalerts/status/1018120998011523073?s=21 Please can you provide me with any records discussing staffing issues / resourcing of the team responsible for bus status alerts, and any records about how this will be remedied. I trust that the staffing issues will have been brought to management attention and at least some records of the problem / concerning its resolution will exist.

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Our ref: FOI-1051-1819/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14 July 2018 asking for information about staffing issues.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.

We are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act, as we consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us. Our principal duty is to provide an effective transport service for London and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort. It would be a significant distraction from our work managing the TfL network, requiring re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that your request falls under section 14(1) of the FOI Act, this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance states that one of the indicators of a request which may fall under section 14(1) is that it “appears to be part of a completely random approach, lacks any clear focus, or seems to have been solely designed for the purpose of ‘fishing’ for information without any idea of what might be revealed.”

The ICO guidance provides the following examples of a ‘fishing expedition’ request which may fall under section 14(1) if it:

- Imposes a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details;

- Encompasses information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request;

- Creates a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions.

You have asked for ‘any records discussing staffing issues / resourcing of the team responsible for bus status alerts’, over an unspecified period of time. Such records could be in many different forms – emails, personnel records, meeting minutes etc, and to search for any relevant records would be a significant task. Records relating to specific individuals are likely to contain personal information, and therefore it is likely that it would be necessary to spend at least some time, and possibly a significant amount of time, considering exemptions which might be applicable to the information caught by the request.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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