Our Ref:        FOI-2237-2425

Thank you for your request received on 22 October 2024 asking for information about the Travel Ambassador Scheme.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require. You asked:

•           How many recorded licensed travel ambassadors are in TfL/LU ?

As of 17 October 2024 there are 673 licensed TfL Ambassadors.

•           How many recorded unlicensed travel ambassadors are in TfL/LU ?

As of 17 October 2024 there are 3638 non-licensed TfL Ambassadors (this includes 673 licensed TfL Ambassadors, as licensed TfL Ambassadors can carry out non-licensed shifts).

•           Over the last 5 years ( broken down per year) how much has it cost TfL in monetary payments to employees for the TA scheme? ( If you can provide data for unlicensed / licensed )

•           How many employees have been dismissed from TfL/LU for breaking the TA rules ?

•           How many employees have been given formal written warnings or final written warnings for breaking TA rules ?

•           How many employees have been put through a disciplinary process for allegations to have been breaking the TA rules ?

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 your request would cost in excess of £450 to provide a response to your current request. 

With regard to your question about monetary payments, this information is not centrally recorded. For licensed shifts we would need to manually review each pay report over the five year period to extract the requested information. Similarly, whole non-licensed shifts are processed separately we would still need to manually calculate this figure. 

For the remaining questions, this information is not recorded in a manner that allows us to easily extract the requested information. A lengthy process would need to be undertaken to identify anyone who has been an Ambassador during the time and the dates which they took on these duties. We would then need to review their personnel records to determine if they ever had any disciplinary action against them and the reason for this. 

Even a conservative estimate of under an hour to go through each case file would still take well over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. This does not include any time that has been spent processing the remainder of you r request. 

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, bearing in mind the information above. As advised above, this information is not held in a way that the data you have requested can be extracted easily or without the need to review individual case files. As any such requests are likely to exceed the cost limit you may wish to request different information. Please be aware that any timeframe that fits within the cost limit will be likely to only provide you with a very narrow subset of information which is therefore likely to be of limited value. 

Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request. 

•           Does TfL undertake any sort of audit to ensure employees are compliant with the TA rules ?

The TfL Ambassador Team carries out a number of different checks and audits to ensure compliance, such as monitoring shifts booked and cancelling shifts if the Ambassador is not eligible to work them, performing audits to ensure shifts have not been worked whilst on annual leave, and monitoring details to ensure accurate line manager records are held etc.

If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate 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]