TfL Ref: 2494-1819

Thank you for your email received by us on 18 December 2018 asking for all information about the introduction of road pricing that has been created, authored or commissioned by Transport for London (TfL) since January 2016.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our information access policy. You asked for:

all of the evaluations, analyses, assessments, plans or any other documents that TfL possesses on the introduction of road pricing that have been created, authored or commissioned by TfL since January 2016.
Any information on the costs of installation, economic benefits/costs to the London economy and timelines for the introduction or possible introduction would required.

Road user charging is one of the packages for delivering the 2041 goals of the Mayors Transport Strategy (MTS). This strategy, the evidence base and integrated appraisal of this strategy has been published and is publically available on this site; https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/travel-in-london-reports#mtsevidence.

Plans, appraisal and reports on future proposed changes to the Congestion Charge, Ultra Low Emissions Zone and Low Emission Zone can be found on the TfL consultation portal; https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/policy/private-hire-charge-exemption/ and https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/environment/air-quality-consultation-phase-3b/.

However, to provide all of the information you have requested would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, given the very wide and unfocussed scope of your request we would need to review a considerable volume of documentation to locate and collate information that is relevant to your request. This process would mostly be manual and significantly exceed the cost limit.

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 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.

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
Information Governance
Transport For London