Request ID: FOI-1678-2122 Date published: 25 November 2021
You asked
How many fines were issued due to people not wearing face coverings on TfL services during the month of October?
We answered
Our ref: FOI-1678-2122/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 30 October 2021 asking for information about fines for not wearing a face covering on TfL services.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.
Since March 2020, TfL has mobilised hundreds of our enforcement staff, who worked alongside officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the British Transport Police (BTP), to intervene with customers who were not complying with the legal requirement to wear a face covering on our public transport services or in our stations and who do not have an exemption. Our focus was on stopping the people who are flouting the rules, stopping them from travelling and/or issuing them a fixed penalty notice for a first offence.
On 19 July 2021 the regulation directing passengers to wear a face covering on public transport was removed. The wearing of face coverings is now a condition of carriage on TfL services, but this does not come with the same enforcement capability as we had under the previous nationwide regulations. We are unable to issue fines or prosecute customers for non-compliance as part of the conditions of carriage, and therefore no Fixed Penalty Notices were issued in October 2021.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
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
