Under the FOI Act please send me any written correspondence between engineering firm Arup and Richard de Cani in the time period covering the last six months of 2012 until Mr de Cani left TfL in 2016 which concerns and/or mentions the proposed Garden Bridge project and that Mr de Cani was merely copied into (I have already received direct emails between him and Arup under FOI from TfL earlier in the year).

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TfL Ref: FOI-1131-1718

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 10 August 2017 asking for correspondence.

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.

Please see attached the information you have requested. For the avoidance of doubt, the attached file contains all emails that we hold which were sent by Arup between the specified dates that refer to the Garden Bridge in which Richard De Cani was copied in, along with their associated chain. We have not included the emails previously provided to you under case ref FOI-2029-1617, however there may be some overlap with this disclosure due to email chains covered by your previous request being carried on by others in which Mr De Cani was no longer the sender or direct recipient.

As agreed in your email of 25 August, we have not considered the associated attachments to these emails for disclosure.

Please note that, in accordance with the FOI Act, some information has been redacted as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under section 43.

This applies to two areas of the correspondence. The first instance of this exemption has been applied to detailed information regarding salary rate changes within Arup which also contains financial information that, if it were obtained by competitors, would be likely to place Arup at a commercial disadvantage in a competitive market place.

Additionally, some summarised information relating to comments provided by several prospective contractors that relate to their potential approach to a contract has also been redacted. Disclosure of this information would be likely to inhibit these companies’ ability to tender competitively for future contracts by placing in the public domain their respective positions on such contracts, including any flexibility and strategic approach to various issues.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public interest in withholding the information. Whilst we recognise the need for openness and transparency by public authorities, in this instance the release of the requested information would have a detrimental effect on these companies’ ability to compete within the market place as well as undermining TfL’s ability to attract competitive tender bids as companies will not have confidence that their strategic information will not be disclosed into the public domain, therefore adversely affecting TfL’s ability to secure value for public money. This detriment outweighs the general public interest in disclosure of the requested information.

Please also note that in accordance with TfL’s obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) 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 DPA, specifically the first principle of the DPA 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 of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act 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 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

Lee Hill

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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