Our Ref:          FOI-1970-1819
 
Thank you for your request received on 29 October 2018 asking for information about rough sleeping on public transport.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and TfL’s information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.
 
TfL is committed to working with the Mayor’s Office and homeless charities to identify and support rough sleepers that seek refuge on the transport system. Our staff regularly intervene and provide valuable assistance to these people, the interventions will include putting them in contact with the appropriate outreach team or support service and in some cases when appropriate, the police.
 
As part of our efforts to help safeguard rough sleepers on our transport networks, we are part-funding Thames Reach, a homelessness outreach charity, in conjunction with the Mayor’s Office to identify and engage with rough sleepers on the transport network. The aim is to get a clearer picture of the extent and causes of rough sleeping that affects the transport network and to develop ‘joined up’ engagement methods with other agencies such as housing to provide support to these people.
 
We are currently reviewing our reporting processes to provide a more accurate picture of rough sleeping across the TfL transport network and to have central oversight of the different activities underway to help rough sleepers across the TfL networks.
 
The GLA’s website has published some information that you might find helpful:
 
https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/chain-reports
 
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 cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
 
At present rough sleeping on the transport system can be reported in a number of ways, however there is currently no central database for recording this information. On many occasions rough sleeping would be reported directly to StreetLink or Thames Outreach, charities commissioned by the Mayor’s Office to deliver outreach services.
 
On buses, incidents of rough sleeping can be recorded in a Driver Incident Report (DIR). However, this information is based on the perception of the staff recording the information. In some situation it might be difficult to identify whether they were homeless, and any such identification would be a subjective assessment made by the stations staff. Any incidences of people rough sleeping may not be recorded anywhere unless they were abusive/refused to detrain. The DIRs we receive are just a snapshot and are based an interpretation of a possible rough sleeper only on the bus network from some of the drivers that have reported this.
 
Classification of rough sleeping incidents also relies on call handlers within CentreComm and driver awareness of rough sleepers, and actually physically inputting key words that would enable rough sleeper flag to be assigned. A word search is likely to also flag incidents where non-rough sleepers are wrongly categorised, such as those who have fallen asleep on the bus network and been woken by the driver at the end of the route.
 
For the Night Tube, when a train reached its terminus the station staff would walk through to clear the train. However if they saw anyone sleeping on the train they would wake them up and detrain them, as with buses - it could be difficult to identify whether they were homeless and again any such identification would be a subjective assessment. Any persons found rough sleeping would not be recorded anywhere unless they were abusive/refused to detrain. Similarly, if a customer was to report a rough sleeper, this would only be logged in the station log if they caused a disturbance and something had to be done to remove them. These incidents would then probably result in a call to the British Transport Police (BTP), which they would hold the data for.
 
In order to collate the information you have requested we would need to read through all of the station log books for all of the stations that have Night Tube service for the past three years. As with the DIRs, this would only provide an inaccurate snapshot of the information you have requested.
 
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. For example, we could provide you with the information from the DIRs, however as stated above, there are several caveats regarding the depth and accuracy of this data.
 
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 Transport for London. 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 TfL.
 
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does 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 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]