Request ID: FOI-1462-2324 Date published: 24 August 2023
You asked
F/on from FOI-1095
As much as I disagree with the reasons for you declining to provide the information I have requested, I will reduce the scope of my request.
I have studied the TFL data retention policy, especially the schedule items related to Employment and Pensions and the data I have requested is covered by these.
Your policy items and their retention periods are stated as follows;
EP1.6.7 Health assessment record of individual employees exposed to
substances hazardous to health. At least 40 years from date of last entry.
EP1.10.6 Leavers, retirement, death in service notifications. Termination of employment contract, 7 years.
EP1.10.9 Settlement / Compromise agreement. Termination of employment contract, 7 years.
As the data I seek is retained for at least 7 years from the termination date of the employee, I request that you provide this to me for the seven years from 2015 to 2022 inclusive. This effectively reduces your workload by around two thirds and is not unreasonable as it falls easily within your data retention requirements stated in your policy.
We answered
Our ref: FOI-1462-2324/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 3 August 2023 asking for information about London Underground staff illness.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy.
We have understood your revised request to be: From 2015 to 2022, on the London Underground,
the number of TfL employees who have taken retirement on medical grounds;
the number of TfL employees who have left under compromise agreement; and
the number of TfL employees who have died in employment.
For the 3 points I have provided, I am seeking this information for cases related to heart, lung or cancer related illnesses for each of the three points. For the 3 points I have provided, I am seeking information on the role and length of service at TfL of any individual identified in each of the three points
Unfortunately we do not hold the requested information in a way which would readily allow us to answer these questions. This is because we are not able to directly report on medical reasons for medical retirements, compromise agreements and deaths in service. I am sorry this wasn’t made clear in our previous response to you.
To explain further, to try to answer your request we would need to identify every employee who has taken retirement on medical grounds during this 7 years period, and cross reference to their sickness file, to see whether heart, lung or cancer related illnesses were a factor. If it were, we would then need to compile the information on their role and length of service at TfL. This entirely manual process would need to be carried out for each employee who has taken retirement on medical grounds. We would then need to carry out the same process for every employee who has left under compromise agreement, or died in employment during this 7 year period.
Due to the amount of work, as described above, we must again refuse your revised request under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR on the basis that it would be ‘manifestly unreasonable’ to answer with it. Providing the information you have requested would impose unreasonable costs on us and require an unreasonable amount of staff time and resources. I hope that the further explanation provided above clarifies our position.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
