FOI request detail

TfL Directly Own Properties / Land

Request ID: FOI-2342-2021
Date published: 05 March 2021

You asked

Dear FOI, Please could i ask via a Freedom Of Information request: 1. A full list of all TfL (or any subsidiary company) directly owned property or land. 2. A list of locations, uses, sizes and users of the listed property or land, whether TfL employees or to a 3rd Party lease.

We answered

TfL Ref 2342-2021

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 16 February 2021 asking for information about TfL land and property ownership.

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 we do hold the information you require. You asked:

Please could i ask via a Freedom Of Information request:

1. A full list of all TfL (or any subsidiary company) directly owned property or land.

2. A list of locations, uses, sizes and users of the listed property or land, whether TfL employees or to a 3rd Party lease.

To answer your first question and the first part of your second question, please see our online public TfL Property Asset Register which gives a map of all our properties and their locations:

https://tfl.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5129c766255941d3be16a6828faa8f18. Some further information on ownership is also publicly accessible through the Land Registry at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry.

However unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested around property uses, sizes, users and third party leases 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 it would significantly exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. This is because there is no central record held of the information you have requested  and to determine if the information is held in the first instance and then to extract the information that is held, would require us to manually review each property file to try and locate the relevant details. There are several thousand property files held containing this information and it would clearly greatly exceed the cost limit to complete this task.

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.

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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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