Thank you for your email dated 31/8/17. FOI Ref : 1299-1718 and ICO Case Reference Number FS50694750 ICA012 As you know this request was for information regarding “In the pass five years how many Taxi and Private Hire Drivers have had their licence suspended with immediate effect after being arrested and released without charge by the Police. Could you kindly break the figures down on a yearly bases and by driver type. How many were allowed back to work after a reconsideration hearing with TFL staff. In the pass five years how many Taxi and Private Hire Drivers have had their licence suspended with immediate affect after being arrested and charge by the Police. Could you kindly break the figures down on a yearly bases and by driver type. How many were allowed back to work after a reconsideration hearing with TFL staff. Could you also explain how the decision is taken to suspend a licence Taxi or Private Hire Driver” You will be aware that Mr Ellis and Mr Rodds of TPH/TFL deal with the Appeals / Reconsideration process when a suspension has taken place and as a result of the suspension arrange dates and appointments times with the suspended liencee to have a hearing. So there would be no need to check each licence just check the appointments diary for the Appeals / Reconsideration Hearing. I have therefore decided to amend my request for the same information but reduce the number of years to part year 2017, and all of 2016 and 2015. Also I would assume that the Police make contact with just one area at TPH/TFL in order to inform them that a Taxi or Private Hire Driver has been arrested or arrested and charged under the notifiable offences. FOI Ref: 1176-1718 Which requests “Since the 19/7/17 could you confirm how many Taxi vehicles appeals have been booked. Could you also confirm the number of Taxi vehicles licence suspension’s and revoked since the 19/7/17.” This too could be checked in the same way as above saving time and money as you have a hearing with Mr Ellis and Mr Rodds of TPH/TFL. FOI Ref: 1191-1718 I withdraw.

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TfL Ref: 1365-1718

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 5 September 2017 asking for information about Taxi and Private Hire licences as below.

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 the information you require.

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.

Your request reference 1176-1718 asked for details of how many Taxi vehicles appeals have been booked since 19 July 2017, and also how many Taxi vehicle licence suspensions and revocations have been made since the 19/7/17.

We can advise that in total, one taxi vehicle appeal has been booked since 19 July 2017 and one taxi vehicle licence has been suspended in the same period.

Your request reference 1299-1718, asked for the number of taxi and private hire drivers who have had their licences suspended with immediate effect after being arrested and either charged or not charged by the police for years 2015, 2016 and 2017 to date, broken down by driver type. You also asked how many drivers were allowed back to work after a reconsideration hearing with TFL staff and for an explanation as to how the decision is taken to suspend a licence Taxi or Private Hire Driver.

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 and 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 that request alone. This is because 164 reconsideration hearings have taken place in the timeframe you have stipulated and we would therefore have to manually check all these records which we estimate will take approximately 10 minutes each to ascertain the reason for the decision that resulted in a reconsideration and the outcome of that reconsideration.  Additionally, 238 driver records will need to be reviewed taking around 5 minutes per record to ascertain where no further action was taken by the police or following arrest / charge.

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.

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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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