Follow on from 1054-1819 As per my previous communication (https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/facial_recognition_technology_2#outgoing-802819) if the Freedom of Information Request falls within Section 12 of the Act please could you replace the "24 months" to 18 months. If this still triggers Section 12 could you either advise what time the scale is that the questions I asked could be answered in or comply with the request stating, in the response, what the time in months you are able to to retrieve this data from.

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TfL Ref: 1804-1819

Thank you for your email received on 9 October 2018 revising your original request for information about Facial Recognition Technology in TfL.

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 require. You asked for any data held by TfL pertaining to the last 18 months only.   So the questions will now read:

a) Please advise if TFL have had discussions with police, business partners or technology companies, etc, about facial recognition technology, either live (in real time) or static (not in real time) in the past 18 months.

i) If so please advise with who and dates when discussed.

ii) If not please advise if there are any plans to use facial recognition technology in the future.

b) Please advise if any TFL cameras have utilised facial recognition technology, please specify whether live or static in the past 18 months.

i) If so please advise dates when deployed.

ii) Please advise if it was conjunction with another organisation and advise that organisation.

iii) Please advise number of cameras used.

iv) Please advise how the public was informed facial recognition was being deployed.

c) Please advise if access has been granted to TFL property for another organisation to deployment facial recognition technology, live or static, with their own cameras, i.e. with cameras not owned by TFL in the past 18 months.

i) If so please advise organisation and dates when this occurred.

ii) Please advise number of cameras used.

iii) Please advise how the public was informed facial recognition was being deployed.

We can confirm as stated below that TfL does not currently use any facial recognition technology across our network. Developments in technology and their potential relevance to our services are a frequent topic of discussion with suppliers, potential suppliers and various partner agencies such as the British Transport Police and it is likely that facial recognition technology has featured at some point in those discussions in the last 18 months.

However in order for us to be definitive in stating whether any recorded information on these discussions is held, what dates they took place or to confirm which parties and business areas have been involved in any discussions would still exceed the Appropriate Limit and Fees Regulations under the provisions of section 12 of the FOI Act in order for us to be certain that we were providing all the information within scope of your request. As we would have to search using the keyword ‘facial recognition technology’ across all of TfL’s mailboxes it is likely that only a substantially shorter time period (perhaps as little as one month) would offer the possibility of a revised request falling under the ‘Appropriate Limit’. You may also wish to consider narrowing the request by limiting it, for instance, to information about a particular aspect of the technology, or its use in a particular context or to discussions with only a small range of named parties.

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

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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