Request ID: FOI-1330-2122 Date published: 14 October 2021
You asked
Dear Transport for London,
For the period of January 2020 to December 2020 please provide data on how many occasions LUL stations were unstaffed by LUL licensed staff for a period of 30mins or longer.
In total, taking into account all of the above individual instances, how long (cumulatively) were stations unstaffed for in hours?
If the addition of this second question would take this request over the reasonable limit for time/cost, please disregard this second question and view the formal request as only comprising of the first.
I was previously provided this data for 2019. You can read the submission here:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/unstaffed_stations_2019?nocache=incoming-1520065#incoming-1520065
Where possible time/cost wise. Can this data also be provided for 2021?
We answered
TfL Ref: 1330-2122
Thank you for your email received by us on 21 September 2021 asking for information about unstaffed London Underground stations during 2020, following your previous request for information (reference: 3023-1920).
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked for:
the period of January 2020 to December 2020 please provide data on how many occasions LUL stations were unstaffed by LUL licensed staff for a period of 30mins or longer.
In total, taking into account all of the above individual instances, how long (cumulatively) were stations unstaffed for in hours?
If the addition of this second question would take this request over the reasonable limit for time/cost, please disregard this second question and view the formal request as only comprising of the first.
I was previously provided this data for 2019. You can read the submission here:
Where possible time/cost wise. Can this data also be provided for 2021?
We can advise that the information you are seeking is no longer actively compiled. We previously collated this data by referring to a manual log for all stations that were left unstaffed. However, this method of data recording ceased at the beginning of 2020, due to staff restructuring and the labour intensive manner needed to produce this information. Your request is therefore being refused under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, a public authority such as TfL is not obliged to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if that information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract that information from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to one person working for 18 hours.
In these circumstances, the only way for us to source this information would be to access our London Underground Control Centre system records to extract the necessary data for 2020, which would then need to be reviewed for accuracy and manually compared with all station closures across the year.
We would also need to remove durations that go across traffic days, whereby the station would actually be closed as standard. Such periods would then need to be categorised as separate incidents, with the relevant unstaffed periods taking into account each individual station’s opening and closing times. With aperiod ranging from January 2020 to December 2020 to review, we believe that the necessary analysis, extraction and preparation required to fulfil your request would take well in excess of the 18 hour limit. In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to focus on a smaller period of time for example.
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.
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.
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
Jasmine Howard FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
