Request ID: FOI-1277-2425 Date published: 19 September 2024
You asked
Follow-on from IRV-049-2425 / FOI-0612-2425
I am happy to limit it to emails caught by the search BYD" AND "bus" AND "reputation", and to limit the search to the content of the emails themselves, excluding attachments.
A review of 49 emails, which will likely include irrelevant material and duplicates which would not require manual review to exclude, is highly unlikely to breach the cost limit.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-1277-2425 Thank you for your request received on 23 July 2024 asking for correspondence regarding BYD buses. 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 that we do hold the information you require. Please find the requested correspondence attached. Some of the emails in the pdf may not appear to be relevant to your request, but this indicates that the keywords are featured in the attachments and not the covering email. The nature of keyword searches will often mean that peripheral information is caught by virtue of the keyword being contained, rather than the keyword being the substantive subject of the email/documentation. However, these attachments have not been included, as per your refined request. In accordance with our obligations under Data Protection legislation some personal data has been removed, as required by section 40 of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first principle of Article 5 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation 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’. This exemption to the right of access to information is an absolute exemption and not subject to an assessment of whether the public interest favours use of the exemption. 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. Yours sincerely Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
