Request ID: FOI-2572-2324 Date published: 30 October 2023
You asked
As you know I applied for a wheelchair exemption in June 2023 which was refused in August 2023. Then in September 2023 I felt pain in my back as a result of lifting a suitcase into my Taxi. Yesterday I received an email from LTPH asking me to surrender my Taxi Driver Licence within 7 days. This is all because I submitted a Fit Note to you advising of amended duties to avoid heavy lifting & manoeuvring heavy items such as wheelchairs.
Whist I accept that I must meet group 2 driving standards could you confirm how many of these emails / letters have been sent to other drivers who do have to load a wheelchair into their vehicle?
How many of these emails / Letters have been sent to drivers who do not have WAV?
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-2572-2324
Our Taxi and Private Hire team have passed over your email of 13th October 2023 – detailed below – as it contains a request for recorded information. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“Could you confirm how many of these emails / letters have been sent to other drivers who do have to load a wheelchair into their vehicle? How many of these emails / Letters have been sent to drivers who do not have WAV?”
I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, I am afraid it is not possible to source an answer within the cost limit for responding to FOI cases, as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not obliged to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the requested information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
In this instance the exemption applies because the information has not been collated before and there is no quick, efficient or automated way of doing so. Rather, in order to determine how many such letters have been sent we would need to individually check the files of each of the c114,000 licensed drivers. Given the numbers involved, this is not possible within the 18 hour limit (which would require us to check over a hundred such files per minute). In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to reframe it to narrow its scope.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
