Thank you for your email received by us on 20 February 2017 asking for information about the Advertising Steering Group, launched by the Mayor of London

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 some of the information you require. You asked for the following:

1)How many times has the Advertising Steering Group met since its inception?

 

The Advertising Steering Group gives guidance on our implementation of our Advertising Policy (published at: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/business-and-commercial/commercial-media) and has looked at advertising on our network since the Advertising Policy was updated in July 2016.

 

The Group met for the first time on 17 February 2017 and also on an informal basis in January 2017, so that members could meet each other beforehand.

2) Can you provide the minutes of these meetings?
The minutes of the meeting held on 17 February will be published on our website (at https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/business-and-commercial/commercial-media) by the end of March. Because we already intend to publish the information you have requested, we are not obliged to provide it to you now in accordance with section 22 of the FOI Act which covers information intended for future publication.
The use of this exemption is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to consider whether the public interest in applying the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. We recognise that the release of information would promote transparency and also help inform you about this issue. However, we consider that the release of the information in its current form would not serve the public interest and given the relatively short interval before publication we consider that the public interest favours the use of the exemption at this time.

 

3) When is the next meeting due to take place?

4) When will TfL publish its annual report, which was promised to "include a review of the campaigns which have run on TfL’s transport network"?

 

We have not yet confirmed a date for the publication of our annual report on the advertising network but it is likely to be by the end of July 2017. However, the timing of this is dependent on confirmation of the date for the next meeting of the Advertising Steering Group; if this is towards the end of July, publication may realistically occur in August.

 

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, 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