FOI request detail

Freedom of Information request - TfL service contracts

Request ID: FOI-2409-2122
Date published: 07 February 2022

You asked

Dear Transport for London, Under the Freedom of Information Act, could Transport for London please list all services contracts that they have sub-contracting out. Please include the start and expiry dates of each contract, estimated number of employees on each contract, each location an employee works on each contract, and the estimated number of employees at each location on each contract, as well as the relevant TfL service each contract is for, e.g. London Underground. These services contracts include, but not limited to: staff agencies, train presentation, train cleaning, external train washing, light station cleaning, deep station cleaning, depot cleaning, messroom cleaning, train maintenance, station maintenance, office cleaning, CCTV cleaning, track vegetation removal, graffiti removal, and catering.

We answered

TfL Ref: 2409-2122

Thank you for your email received by us on 18 January 2022 asking for information about all of Transport for London’s (TfL) sub-contracted service agreements.

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

please list all services contracts that they have sub-contracting out.

Please include the start and expiry dates of each contract,

estimated number of employees on each contract,

each location an employee works on each contract, and the estimated number of employees at each location on each contract,

as well as the relevant TfL service each contract is for, e.g. London Underground.

These services contracts include, but not limited to:

staff agencies,

train presentation,

train cleaning,

external train washing,

light station cleaning,

deep station cleaning,

depot cleaning,

messroom cleaning,

train maintenance,

station maintenance,

office cleaning,

CCTV cleaning,

track vegetation removal,

graffiti removal,

and catering.

Some of the information you asked for is available on our website using the following link to the Transparency section of our website where we publish details of our contracts via: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/contracts-awarded-tfl.pdf  Here we provide the Contract Title, Contract Description, Earliest Expiry Date, Value Band and Vendor Name for these contracts of interest. These can be located by using keywords such as those mentioned below, accompanied by the associated results in brackets:
 
  • Cleaning (36)
 
  • Maintenance (437)
 
  • Washing (Three)
 
  • Laundry  (Six)
 
  • Graffiti (Four)
 
  • Catering (Nine)
 
  • Removal (42)
 
  • Waste (32)
 
  • Vegetation (24)
 
  • Agency (19)
 
  • Temporary labour (One)

There is also the Government’s online Contract Finder, which can be referred to at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of some the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.

However, to provide the remainder of information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, since you have asked for ‘all services contracts that they have sub-contracting out’ to include ‘the start and expiry dates of each contract, estimated number of employees on each contract, each location an employee works on each contract, and the estimated number of employees at each location on each contract’.

Transport for London as a statutory body was created by the GLA in 1999, we would therefore have to retrieve data going back more than twenty years to fulfil your request in full. Furthermore, to find information on: ‘the estimated number of employees on each contract, each location an employee has worked on each contract, and the estimated number of employees at each location on each contract that has been sub-contracted’ would mean the extraction and reviewal of each employee record based in Procurement over this period to determine where they were located, which inevitably would have changed over time. We would also need to review the specific contracts the individual worked on, which would then need to be cross-referenced against the contracts referenced in your request going back over two decades.  

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 to a smaller period of time 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, as mentioned before, 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.

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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