FOI request detail

Manspreading on the TfL rail network

Request ID: FOI-2636-1819
Date published: 31 January 2019

You asked

Please may I request information you hold on reports of 'manspreading' on the TfL rail network? Please can you supply me with the number of reports/complaints to TfL that mention the term 'manspreading', and basic details about each of the incidents, including where and when. I would like information for the past five years, if feasible. If providing five years of data exceeds the cost of compliance limits (outlined in Section 12 of the FOI Act 2000), please supply the information for the past three years, two years or one. If this is still not possible, please could you supply advice and assistance for how I can refine my request, as stated under the Section 16 obligations of the Act.

We answered

TfL Ref: 2636-1819

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 8 January 2019 asking for information about ‘manspreading’ complaints on the TfL network.

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

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.

We have estimated that it would significantly exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your current request. It is not possible to directly report on complaints of this nature and so we are unable to provide a full figure. The only way to collate this information would be to review our complaints data and manually extract any that are relevant.

However,  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.

We have conducted a preliminary search of our customer complaints database using the keywords of ‘manspread’, ‘man spread’ and ‘legs apart’ going back over the last 10 months to given an indication of the potential prevalence of these types of complaints, however this search did not locate any relevant information and so we are confident this is not an issue that is commonly raised with us.

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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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