FOI request detail

Volume of penalties issued for breaching loading bay rules

Request ID: FOI-2237-2223
Date published: 04 January 2023

You asked

Please advise how many penalties were issued to users of TfL loading bays for: Q1 breaching the rule that visits must not exceed 20 minutes: a) on bays in Kensington & Chelsea b) on bays anywhere in London Q2 breaching any loading bay rule: a) on bays in Kensington & Chelsea b) on bays anywhere in London. Please provide this data by year, for: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (to date).

We answered

TfL Ref: 2237-2223

Thank you for your request received by us on 5 December 2022 asking for information about penalties issued for breaching loading bay rules.

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

Please advise how many penalties were issued to users of TfL loading bays for:

Q1   breaching the rule that visits must not exceed 20 minutes:
        a) on bays in Kensington & Chelsea
        b) on bays anywhere in London

Q2   breaching any loading bay rule:
        a) on bays in Kensington & Chelsea
        b) on bays anywhere in London.

Please provide this data by year, for:  2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (to date).

We can advise that we do not record this data because we do not report on these areas specifically, hence the information you are seeking is not held in the format requested, since we do not categorise on our database system whether a vehicle has exceeded the 20 minute permitted time period in a loading bay, nor whether the loading bay rule has been breached. Whilst we report on Penalty Charge Notices issued for parking where prohibited in a red route bay, this does not include penalties for breaching loading rules.

Therefore to ascertain whether this information is held would cost over £450 to provide a response to this part of 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, as we would have to access each individual PCN record and verify the nature of the contravention from 2018 to date.

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 for red route parking contraventions in general over a narrower period of time for example, 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.

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 would also like to advise that loading bay contravention data relating to specific areas may be subject to additional exemptions.

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 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

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