I would like to know the total number of cases of passengers being caught dodging fares for the years 2015-2018 by TFL. I am referring to customers who have been caught without a valid ticket, travel card, or oyster at either a station, or on public transport by inspector, or anything else TFL considers to be violation of its ticketing policy. Please provide an additional breakdown of the following: 1. the breakdown by form of public transport these were on (eg. tube, bus, tram) 2. the top 10 tube stations where customers were caught avoiding fares 3. for London Underground, the breakdown by tube lines on which customers were caught dodging fares 4. for London buses, the breakdown by bus route/bus number on which customers were caught dodging fares 5. I would also like to know the breakdown by type of ticket violations, eg. adult travelling on child ticket, forged ticket, no ticket altogether. If you need further clarification, or require me to rephrase my request, please advise as necessary.

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TfL Ref: 1858-1920

Thank you for your email received by us on 22 September 2019 asking for information about fare evasion.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked:

I would like to know the total number of cases of passengers being caught dodging fares for the years 2015-2018 by TFL. I am referring to customers who have been caught without a valid ticket, travel card, or oyster at either a station, or on public transport by inspector, or anything else TFL considers to be violation of its ticketing policy.  

Please provide an additional breakdown of the following:

1. the breakdown by form of public transport these were on (eg. tube, bus, tram)

2.  the top 10 tube stations where customers were caught avoiding fares

3. for London Underground, the breakdown by tube lines on which customers were caught dodging fares

4. for London buses, the breakdown by bus route/bus number on which customers were caught dodging fares

5. I would also like to know the breakdown by type of ticket violations, eg. adult travelling on child ticket, forged ticket, no ticket altogether. 

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. This is because we do not have the capacity to provide a breakdown of each offence in relation to fare evasions. To collate this information would mean we would have to manually review four years worth of data (approximately 59,068 cases) to determine the bus routes, the tube stations, the offences and the outcome.       

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.

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 period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation.

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.

We are able to provide the number of passengers caught fare dodging and prosecution reports from 2015-2018 so please le me know if you would like me to send this to you.

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 as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Melissa Nichols

FOI Case Officer

Information Governance

Transport For London

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