Request ID: FOI-1994-2324 Date published: 26 September 2023
You asked
Hello,
Please tell me how much has TFL made from vegan cheese adverts over each of the last 3 years, broken down by year and by the product being advertised, including the brand name.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-1994-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7th September 2023 asking for information about vegan cheese adverts on the TfL network. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“Please tell me how much has TFL made from vegan cheese adverts over each of the last 3 years, broken down by year and by the product being advertised, including the brand name.”
I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, I am afraid it is not possible to source the information to answer your questions within the costs limit for responding to FOI cases as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the requested information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
In this instance the exemption applies because the information has not been collated before and there is no quick, efficient or automated way of doing so. While colleagues in our Marketing team do not recall L running any adverts for vegan cheese, to confirm this is categorically the case we would need to review our advertising records. Those records do not record vegan foods as a stand alone category. Therefore, to find the information to answer your questions - or to confirm that there were none - we would have to manually review every booking under the “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverage” category for the three years in question. Given there are thousands of such records, this is not possible within the costs limit.
In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to reframe its scope. For example, if you are able to name specific brands and products this may make our ability to search for the information less time consuming.
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,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
