FOI request detail

CCTV across the London Underground

Request ID: FOI-2471-1617
Date published: 15 June 2017

You asked
Dear Transport for London, As part of my Masters Dissertation, I am investigating the extent and use of CCTV and how it impacts upon the privacy of contemporary society. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please could you provide me with the following information: 1) How many fixed CCTV cameras are there across the London Underground network, including stations and depots? (Please could you provide me with any maps or diagrams that may be useful). 2) Could you provide me with details of the amount of CCTV cameras in 2000 and in each year, up until present? 3) Please could you state the TSL objectives for the use and application of CCTV. 4) How much money has TSL has spent on CCTV in the last 10 years? 5) How long is CCTV footage kept for before it is automatically erased? 6) Are all the CCTV cameras constantly monitoring and recording the public? 7) Do you provide CCTV footage to any third parties and if so, please could you state whom? 8) Who has access to the footage and what are the protocols for accessing the footage? What are TSL safeguards relating to the access of CCTV footage? 9) How many times has TSL misused CCTV, or had complaints against them regarding the use of CCTV? 10) In the year 2016, how many times was CCTV footage used in court as evidence for prosecutions brought upon by TFL. 11) In the year 2016, how many times was CCTV footage used in court as evidence for prosecutions brought upon by other agencies e.g. BTP. 12) Please could you state how many times CCTV has been used in specific locations to detect crime, e.g. crime hotspots, where CCTV is most effective. 13) Is facial recognition being used on the London Underground and if so please could you state the locations? I understand you conducted a trial on facial recognition technology in the past, please could you provide information on this study, including the date, location, methodology and results. Finally, please could you provide any other information that you may deem relevant to the nature of these requests, e.g. maps, polices, protocols and so forth.

We answered

TfL Ref: FOI-2471-1617

Thank you for your email received by us on 10 March 2017 asking for information about CCTV across the London Underground.

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

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.

The information requested is not recorded centrally so would have to be collated.  Question 9 regarding how many times we may have misused CCTV would involve searching internal reports into mistakes by technical staff, and complaints coming in through any number of teams and we have estimated this alone would exceed the appropriate limit.

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. For example, you may wish to narrow the scope of question 9 to a smaller time period or omit it from your request.

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.

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

Paulina Tuffour
FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

 

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