TfL Ref: FOI-2619-1617

Thank you for your email received by us on 24 March 2017 asking for information about CCTV on buses.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our Information Access Policy. You asked:

I need to know if you hold any information for CCTV footage or whether on the 11th Feb 2016 the CCTV on a public route C10 bus was working or not on the actual bus, Reg YX11 AED. If the CCTV was not working your end or was faulty were you notified of this by the bus company on the date concerned or prior to the date and can you provide data for this if you hold this or any how can you obtain this.

I am sorry to hear you were unable to retrieve CCTV footage from Abellio. Unfortunately, TfL are unable to provide the footage as the CTV footage on buses is owned by the respective bus operator and TfL do not have access to it.

CCTV footage is kept for between 5 and 10 days before being recorded over, so it is highly unlikely that there will be any footage available and only Abellio would be able to confirm this with certainty.

As you have requested details on how you may be able to obtain footage, I will provide our general advice although I would reiterate that it is unlikely the footage will still be available.

If you are requesting CCTV in relation to a crime, the best course of action is to contact the police as soon as possible after the crime was committed. The police normally require the time, date, location, direction of travel, route number and vehicle registration number in order to identify the particular bus in question. If you feel this is not a matter for the police we would encourage you to go back to Abellio and seek the footage directly from them.

Secondly, I have already spoken to customer services today and they have advised me that Bus Reg: YX11 AED has been withdrawn from your TFL buses now. I would like to find out what date, when and why this was withdrawn from your end as this can prove to be extra useful information on my incident date which was dating back to 11th Feb 2016.

We wouldn’t know the specific reason why an operator would remove a bus from our fleet. Operators can redeploy buses elsewhere in the UK after they have served two contract terms or less in London. No buses, except classic Routemasters, continue in service after 14 years of age in the London fleet.

If this is not the information you are looking for, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Melissa Nichols

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London