Request ID: FOI-2421-2122 Date published: 15 February 2022
You asked
Q1. Can you please list the number of devices deployed by your organisation for the following?
Desktop PCs and Laptops
Mobile Phones (Smartphones, PDAs handheld devices)
Printers
Tablets
Servers
Storage Devices
Networking Infrastructure (E.g., Switches, Routers, etc)
Security Infrastructure
Q2. Does your organisation have any plans for refreshing or replacing the above devices, if so, can you please provide the indicative or projected expenditure in the below format?
Desktop PCs and Laptops
Mobile Phones (Smartphones, PDAs handheld devices)
Printers
Tablets
Servers
Storage Devices
Networking Infrastructure
Security Infrastructure
Q3. Does your organisation have any plans for developing, refreshing, or replacing IT or ICT software applications, if so, can you please provide the information in the below format?
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-2421-2122
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 24 January 2022, asking for information about IT devices, hardware and software applications.
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.
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 it would considerably exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. This is because it would take several working days to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. The information is held in a number of different systems and spans multiple teams across our Technology & Data directorate (T&D). Staff members from all the different areas of T&D would have to extract and export the data from the different systems, which would then have to be manually validated and scripted prior to disclosure.
For item 1 (existing asset information), we estimate the effort to pull this together would be equivalent to 3 working days.
For item 2 (refresh expenditure planning), we estimate it’s equivalent to 4 days’ worth of effort. The point about stating the years (if the expenditure is not available) for refresh is not viable as the assets themselves would have different refresh dates and that in itself would be very time consuming to collate.
For item 3 (refreshing/replacing applications), we have around 700 applications, all with different lifecycle information, spanning multiple areas of T&D. This would be weeks of work as opposed to days.
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 Transport for London. 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 shorter period of time, geographical area or specific departments of TfL.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does 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.
Yours sincerely
Eva Hextall FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
