TfL Ref: 2154-2021

Thank you for your email received on 21 January 2021 asking for information about unlicensed Taxi vehicles.

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 the information you require. You asked for the following:

In his answer to question 2020/4624 at Mayor’s Question Time, the mayor states a vehicle owner can choose not to licence their vehicles upto 24 months.
 
Please can you inform me, how many taxi vehicles fall into this category. For clarification I am asking how many taxi vehicles who’s licence has expired, the owner for what ever reason has chosen not to obtain a new licence but has the option of relicensing in that period that allows.
 
If costs permit I would also be grateful if you could provide me with the numbers for private hire vehicles
 
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 because we have identified that there are 122 Taxi records and 184 Private Hire Vehicle records that would each need to be manually checked and verified for the purposes of your request to determine whether they were previously licensed and eligible to be relicensed accordingly.

A vehicle owner can also choose not to license their vehicle for a period of up to 24 months if they are not working. In these circumstances, vehicle owners must be mindful of taxi and private hire vehicle licensing requirements when they seek to relicense their vehicle. 

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.

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.

If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

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

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London