Petrol Vehicles Registered New Prior to 1st March 2001
Request ID: FOI-2324-2324 Date published: 13 November 2023
You asked
Follow-up to IRV-092-2324: Thank you for your swift response. This is a complicated issue, and thank you for drilling down into the specific requirements of this FOI request.
As I said earlier, TFL are refusing to engage in this issue. I can only speculate as to why.
I have a second more specific request running parallel to this one requesting clear and concise data that TFL clearly hold relating to vehicle fuel type, first registration and ULEZ compliance, for these vehicles first registered as new prior to 1st March 2001. I have been told amazingly that TFL do not hold this information as DVLA have it!! Who actually wrote this as a FOI response?
This trail is below for your information.
Dealing with your one question regarding actual evidence, TFL have stated several times in FOI responses that: "In the absence of any data to the contrary a petrol vehicle manufactured in 2001 would be regarded as non-compliant based on the date of manufacture"
1. This statement is not factually correct, as I have laid out in my email below earlier today, TFL are assuming that NO EVIDENCE is in fact EVIDENCE of non-ULEZ compliance. Is this correct?
2. Lastly, do TFL hold any correspondence, policy, specification or information regarding "EARLY-ADAPTORS" as TFL quoted whilst responding to a previous FOI request and is referred to in detail in my email below?
3. Is there a TFL policy regarding the specification of vehicles referred to as "EARLY-ADAPTORS"?
Thank you again for your time.
We answered
TfL Ref: EIR-2324-2324
Thank you for your further request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 28th September 2023 asking for information about the ULEZ scheme.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) and our information access policy.
Your questions are answered in turn below:
Question 1: Dealing with your one question regarding actual evidence, TFL have stated several times in FOI responses that: "In the absence of any data to the contrary a petrol vehicle manufactured in 2001 would be regarded as non-compliant based on the date of manufacture"
This statement is not factually correct, as I have laid out in my email below earlier today, TFL are assuming that NO EVIDENCE is in fact EVIDENCE of non-ULEZ compliance. Is this correct?
Answer: As explained previously, where there is no evidence to support that a vehicle meets the ULEZ emission standards the vehicle is marked non-compliant. We run the ULEZ in accordance with the Low Emission Zone Scheme Order. A copy is available online here:
The Low Emission Zone Scheme Order, which includes the ULEZ, states:
“(2) A vehicle meets the standards required of an ultra low emission vehicle for the purposes of this Scheme if Transport for London is satisfied that the vehicle meets the emissions standards specified for that vehicle in Tables 2 to 6 of Part 2 of Annex 2.”
This puts the onus on the motorist to confirm their vehicle is compliant. If there is no evidence to support that a vehicle meets the standards it will be regarded as non-compliant and the charge will be payable.”
Question 2: Lastly, do TFL hold any correspondence, policy, specification or information regarding "EARLY-ADAPTORS" as TFL quoted whilst responding to a previous FOI request and is referred to in detail in my email below?
And;
Question 3: Is there a TFL policy regarding the specification of vehicles referred to as "EARLY-ADAPTORS"? Answer: It is not clear what “correspondence” means in this context. ‘Correspondence’ may mean internal discussion between colleagues, or external correspondence received from the public or other stakeholders. There is no way of easily determining what “correspondence” TfL may hold on the broad subject of “early-adopters” without expending a disproportionate amount of effort. This element of the request is therefore being refused under Regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIR on the basis that it is “manifestly unreasonable”. Further, there is no single, documented “policy” on early-adopters. That said, we acknowledge that some vehicles are early adopters and that they were manufactured to a Euro 4 (Petrol) or Euro 6 (Diesel) standard before there was a legal requirement on manufacturers to do so. When we are provided with evidence that a vehicle is an early adopter and is compliant with the ULEZ we update our records to reflect this and no charge is payable. The work to identify ‘early adopters’ referenced the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) published data on type-approved models of car. The data is available for download here:- http://carfueldata.direct.gov.uk/downloads/default.aspx Work was done to match the VCA data (identifying make/model combinations that are type-approved at Euro 4 or having NOx emissions surpassing Euro 4) with the concurrent DVLA dataset. The focus was upon the model years 2000 to 2007. This resulted in the production of a list of petrol early adopters, based on a combination of five vehicle attributes (Make, Fuel Type, Engine Capacity, CO2, and year of registration) which is used as part of the rules in categorising compliance. The list is static, but since no Euro 4 cars are currently being manufactured, that is appropriate. Since the work done in this area was as comprehensive as the data would allow, TfL considers that a vehicle not meeting this ‘early adopter’ criteria should be reasonably considered non-compliant. In a few cases, motor manufacturers have assisted with declarations of further make/model combinations that were manufactured to the appropriate standards and these have been included.
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 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
