Has anyone at TFL involved in licensing decisions ever worked in the licensed taxi trade, been a licensed taxi driver and/or received emoluments from any licensed taxi organisation? Does anyone at TFL involved in licensing decisions have any family members who work or have worked in the licensed taxi trade, been a licensed taxi driver and/or received emoluments from any licensed taxi organisation? Are there any conflicts of interest that may be relevant to the ability of TFL employees to make licensing decisions objectively and fairly? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, please could you provide details of which TFL employees this applies to and the nature of their connections to the licensed taxi trade as well as any other possible conflicts of interest.

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TfL Ref: 1377-1819

Thank you for your email received by us on 17 August 2018 asking for information about Transport for London’s (TfL) taxi and private hire licensing staff. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you have requested. Below I have answered each of your questions in the order that you have asked them.

Has anyone at TFL involved in licensing decisions ever worked in the licensed taxi trade, been a licensed taxi driver and/or received emoluments from any licensed taxi organisation?

We do not hold information regarding the entire employment history of our licensing staff. However, employees must advise their line manager if they hold a taxi or private hire licence or of their intention to apply for one. No members of the current licensing staff have declared that they hold or intend to apply for a licence.

Regarding emoluments from taxi organisations, our Policy on ‘Gifts and Hospitality’ applies to all staff who work for TfL. The policy clearly states that any gifts or hospitality offered should usually be declined and that gifts or hospitality should not be accepted where there is a possibility, or a perception, of being influenced by it.

There are a few circumstances where acceptance might be appropriate and these must be approved by a line manager and recorded into the Corporate Gifts and Hospitality Register. Offers accepted by TfL Board Members and senior TfL staff are published on our website on a quarterly basis. These can be found at the following locations: www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/corporate-governance/chief-officers and www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/how-we-work/corporate-governance/board-members.

We have checked the information we hold for 2017 and 2018 and can confirm that there was no record of gifts or hospitality received from a taxi organisation. However, to examine each record in our central register, and the local registers that were held prior to 2017, for almost two hundred members of Taxi and Private Hire (TPH) licensing staff, 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 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.

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. For example, by providing the names of individuals and referencing a specific timeframe that you would like this information to cover.

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

Does anyone at TFL involved in licensing decisions have any family members who work or have worked in the licensed taxi trade, been a licensed taxi driver and/or received emoluments from any licensed taxi organisation?

Taxi and private hire employees must declare if any family member (or any other individual known to them who could cause a conflict of interest) currently holds a taxi or private hire licence or has an application ongoing.

Eight members of TPH licensing staff have declared that they are related to, or have personal relationships with licensed taxi drivers.

Please note that in accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA), as required by section 40(2) of the FOI Act, we will not be providing the names of the staff members concerned. 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’.

Are there any conflicts of interest that may be relevant to the ability of TFL employees to make licensing decisions objectively and fairly?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, please could you provide details of which TFL employees this applies to and the nature of their connections to the licensed taxi trade as well as any other possible conflicts of interest.

Employees of TfL have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest. Any conflict must be notified in writing to TfL and updated as appropriate.

As previously mentioned, eight members of staff have highlighted a relationship with a licensed taxi driver. Following a disclosure of this nature steps are taken to ensure that the staff members concerned do not play any part in the licensing of someone they know personally to ensure there is no conflict of interest.

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
Information Governance
Transport for London

 

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