Dear Transport for London, In this letter on your website http://content.tfl.gov.uk/extraordinary-funding-and-financing-agreement-may-2020.pdf it says that proposals are to be brought by Tfl to: "the London COVID Transport Task Force [on] travel demand management ... including but not limited to temporary suspension of free travel for Freedom Pass and 60 plus card holders." Please provide all details of the discussions on this subject at Tfl, and at the London COVID Transport Task Force since 1st April 2020, in particular when the temporary suspension referred to will end, and on what basis.

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TfL Ref 1203-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 27 September 2020 asking for information on the 60+ Oyster Card suspension.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold some of the information you require. You asked for: all details of the discussions on the proposals to be brought by TfL to the London COVID Transport Task Force on the temporary suspension of free travel for Freedom Pass and 60 plus card holders since 1 April 2020 in particular when the temporary suspension referred to will end, and on what basis.

The temporary suspension of free travel for Freedom Pass and 60 plus card holders during peak times was a condition of the funding agreement with the Government in May. The agreement does not specify for how long the temporary suspension is to remain in place. The funding letter from the Government was published with the 2 June TfL Board papers and can be found here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/board-20200602-agenda-and-papers-supplentary.pdf

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 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.

We have estimated that it would significantly exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. This is because emails containing the details of the discussions on the proposals you’ve asked about are held by a number of individuals across the organisation.  In order to identify and locate all internal and external correspondence relating to the discussions, we would have to conduct an email search across the whole organisation using key words such as ‘Freedom Pass’ and ‘COVID Task Force’ which would generate hundreds and potentially thousands of emails which would each have to be manually reviewed in order to extract any emails which fall within the scope of your request.  It would also be difficult to determine when we could be satisfied that searches for information held in relation to your request have captured everything given the number of potential key words and their variables that we would need to use to carry out the appropriate email searches for the information you are requesting.

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 us. 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 the organisation.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do 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.

A summary of the current position can be found in the following two links:

https://www.london.gov.uk/decisions/md2642-temporary-changes-free-travel-arrangements-older-londoners

https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/md2642_appendix_2_-_eqia.pdf

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

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

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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