FOI request detail

PH Vehicles Licensed

Request ID: FOI-2449-2223
Date published: 16 January 2023

You asked

I would like to know how many petrol and diesel vehicles were imported into the UK from abroad and then licensed in Nov / Dec before the January 2023 cut off.

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-2449-2223

Thank you for your request for information received on 29 December 2022 regarding Transport for London’s licensing of private hire vehicles.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold the information you require. You asked:

“How many petrol and diesel vehicles were imported into the UK from abroad and then licensed in Nov / Dec before the January 2023 cut off.”

We do not specifically record on our licensing system if a vehicle has been imported into the UK from abroad.  However, based on Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN) we have identified that approximately 1,400 private hire vehicles that were new to licensing between 1 November and 31 December 2022 were likely to be imported vehicles.

The only way we could provide a definitive number would be to manually check each individual record of the several thousand vehicles licensed during this period, collating this information 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 requests 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. In this instance, we estimate that the time required to answer your request would exceed 18 hours which, at £25 per hour (the rate stipulated by the Regulations), exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Graham Hurt
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

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