Request ID: FOI-1396-2324 Date published: 22 August 2023
You asked
Follow-up to FOI-0660-2324: Thanks for your response.
Can we focus the questions on London Underground, Underground and HR please.
I appreciate your explanation and help.
Clarification received 04/08/2023: Dear FOI,
Apologies, London Underground, overground and HR
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-1396-2324
Thank you for your request of 31st July 2023 asking for information about the handling of Subject Access Requests (SARs) at TfL. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Further to case reference FOI-0660-2324, you asked:
“Can we focus the questions on London Underground, Underground and HR please.”
On 4th August 2023 you clarified that the second reference to the Underground should have read “Overground”. The original questions that this request relates to were as follows:
Question 1 - How many Subject access requests have you received from April 2022- April 2023?
Question 2 - How long on average does it take to respond to each request?
Question 3 - How many requests are returned to the subject late? (either after 1 calendar month or an extension)?
Question 4 - How many employee SARs have you received (April 2022-23) and how many were responded to late?
Question 5 - What % increase or decrease were your SAR figures from April 2021-22 to April 22-23? Rough figure is fine.
I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. However, please note that TfL does not hold any of the information in relation to the London Overground. The London Overground is a contracted service operated by Arriva Rail London. SARs relating to the Overground are passed to that company to address.
In respect of the London Underground and our HR team - for which we have included Occupational Health - the answer to Question 1 is shown in the table below:
TfL Period
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Total
Period start/end dates for 2022-23
01/04-30/04
01/05-28/05
29/05-25/06
26/06-23/07
24/07-20/08
21/08-17/09
18/09-15/10
16/10-12/11
13/11-10/12
11/12-07/01
08/01-04/02
05/02-04/03
05/03-31/03
HR Services
10
22
21
17
13
21
19
17
15
13
3
10
17
198
Occupational Health
4
3
6
5
4
5
6
4
6
4
7
5
5
64
LU
18
27
16
11
32
15
13
21
44
25
20
27
33
302
Total
32
52
43
33
49
41
38
42
65
42
30
42
55
564
The following table shows the equivalent data for the year 2021/22:
TFL PERIOD
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Total
Period start/end dates for 2021-22
01/04-01/05
02/05-29/5
30/5-26/6
27/6-24/7
25/7-21/8
22/8-18/09
19/09-16/10
17/10-13/11
14/11-11/12
12/12-08/01
09/01-05/02
06/02-05/03
06/03-31/03
HR Services
16
16
19
15
24
17
9
17
14
9
17
8
9
190
Occupational Health
4
5
9
5
7
4
3
2
4
4
3
3
1
54
LU
8
12
16
8
10
20
21
20
22
17
14
30
21
219
Total
28
33
44
28
41
41
33
39
40
30
34
41
31
463
In relation to your other questions, it is not possible to answer these within the costs limit for responding to FOI cases, as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the information is held, and to the locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
In this case the exemption applies because the information has not been collated before, and because there is no automated, quick or efficient way of doing so. Rather, to calculate the answers to your questions we would have to manually review each Subject Access Request in the above tables individually. Given the numbers involved - over 1,000 - this is not possible within the costs limit.
In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to reframe it to narrow its scope, focussing on the information that is of most importance to you.
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,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
