Could you please provide me with the following information from 1 January 2012 to 1 October 2017. The number of train operators / instructor operators that have gone to case conference after 3 SPADs in a 2-year period The number of these train operators that have been redeployed to another grade The number of train operators / instructor operators that have done to case conference after 4 SPADs in a 2-year period The number of these train operators that have been redeployed to another grade The number of train operators / instructor operators that have gone to case conference after 5 or more SPADs in a 2-year period The number of these train operators that have been redeployed to another grade The number of train operators / instructor operators that have gone to case conference after 3 safety related incidents in a 2-year period The number of these train operators that have been redeployed to another grade The number of train operators / instructor operators that have done to case conference after 4 safety related incidents in a 2-year period The number of these train operators that have been redeployed to another grade The number of train operators / instructor operators that have gone to case conference after 5 or more safety related incidents in a 2-year period The number of these train operators that have been redeployed to another grade

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TfL Ref: 1822-1718

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 10 October 2017 asking for information about train operators and HR case conferences.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy.  I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

We have estimated that it would significantly exceed the appropriate limit to provide a response to your current request. This is because since 1 January 2012, 242 Train Operators have had at least one set of 3 or more SPADs (Signals Passed at Danger)  in a 2 year period.  We do not keep a central record of case conferences relating to multiple SPADs, therefore in order to establish the number of train operators who have had case conferences that relate to multiple SPADs we would need to manually check individuals' staff records. If we conservatively estimate that to check each record would take 10 minutes to see if there is a record of such a case conference, to complete this task for 242 members of staff would exceed 40 hours of work. In addition, some of these files are probably in our archives, so would need to be retrieved from storage, plus we have not taken into account instances of any Train Operators with multiple safety related incidents, or the time it would take to establish if any train operators subsequently changed grade.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular time period.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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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