Our Ref:          FOI-1554-1819

Thank you for your request received on 8 September 2018 asking for information about sexual assaults on the London Underground.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:

The number of sex attacks reported on the London Underground network from September 2015 to September 2018, broken down by year, gender of person reporting the attack, tube line and specifying whether it happened on a night tube. Please also specify types of attack (i.e. sexual assault, rape, etc) and outcome if possible.

We produce and publish a quarterly and annual bulletin of crime and incident statistics on our website. The bulletin brings together crime statistics from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and BTP to provide a summary of recorded crime relating to our public transport networks.

It includes data on reported sexual offences across the London bus network, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and the London Overground Service:

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/crime-and-incident-bulletins.

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.

The published data goes up to March 2018. We are not obliged to supply the information for the remainder of 2018 as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information, under Section 22 of the Act.

In this instance the exemption has been applied as the information you have requested is intended for future publication. The information is currently being validated to ensure accuracy. It is anticipated the results will be published on the TfL website after the current financial year has ended.

This exemption is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to assess whether the public interest in applying the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. In this instance, it is considered that the public interest favours the publication of this information, in context and according to the pre-determined schedule, rather than in response to your request, to ensure the information is provided accurately and in an accessible manner.

We do not take or retain reports of sexual assaults. Victims of sexual offences are encouraged to report the offence directly to the police so that it can be investigated. Sexual offence data is provided by the police as part of routine reporting and performance monitoring. If you require more detailed information please contact the British Transport Police directly: http://www.btp.police.uk/contact_us.aspx.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]