Request ID: FOI-2653-2122 Date published: 25 March 2022
You asked
I would like to request the following information about complaints made between the dates of 1st January 2021 and 1st February 2022:
a. The number of complaints made to TFL about instances of harassment on any of your transport services, specifying on which service the incident, or alleged incident, took place.
b. The number of TFL staff who have themselves experienced abuse or harassment whilst working.
c. The number of complaints made to TFL about the night tubes not fully reopening.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2653-2122
Thank you for your request received on 20 February 2022 asking for information about complaints made regarding harassment and the Night Tube. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require. You asked: a. I am now requesting the following information for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, to be displayed in the following format. TfL staff work hard to serve the millions of customers who use the transport network every day and have the right to go about their work without fear or intimidation. TfL takes workplace violence extremely seriously and always encourages staff to report any instance of abuse whether physical or non-physical so that preventative measures can be taken, and the strongest penalties brought against offenders. A specialist unit within TfL works with both the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and British Transport Police (BTP) police services to investigate crimes against staff. This Workplace Violence and Aggression (WVA) Team support staff and their managers, and assists the Police in the investigation of physical assault and verbal aggression against our staff, which can include public order offences and hate crime. Their purpose is to improve the quality of staff assault investigation and provide feedback to police and other criminal justice partners, as well as improve victim care and support provided by TfL. The objective of this work is to encourage staff to report every incident, and over the last five years the WVA team have proactively engaged with TfL staff across all types of transport to demonstrate the benefits of reporting. We have also rolled out the use of body won cameras - 4,500 body worn cameras for staff have been in operation across the TfL network since the end of 2020 to help reduce workplace violence. Please find the requested information in the table below: 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 The number of London Underground station staff physically assaulted. 593 587 254 The number of London Underground station staff threatened. 716 767 729 The number of London Underground staff targeted by verbal or gesture abuse. 964 983 1859 The data above is derived from internal incident reporting in our safety management systems. It captures all types of assault, including verbal abuse and physical assault as reported. The data does not show incidents reported to the police and classified as an assault. We do hold some data that includes police reports and staff reports, however this data only goes back to April 2020. Please note that the majority of assaults and incidents happen during the day when the Tube is at its busiest. b. I would also like to request the following information for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, to be displayed in the following format. London’s transport network is a safe, low-crime network. Millions of passengers travel on it every day, with very few of them ever experiencing or witnessing crime. We fund more than 2,500 officers across the MPS, BTP, and the City of London Police (CoLP). They police the network to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour, and make customers feel safer when travelling. We regularly publish information regarding crime and incidents on our network on our website: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/crime-and-incident-bulletins Please find the requested information in the table below: 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 A: The number of recorded instances of London Underground users who have been physically assaulted whilst on the underground. 3088 3156 1167 B: The number of recorded instances of London Underground users who have been threatened whilst on the underground. 1687 1515 864 C: The number of recorded instances of London Underground users who have experienced verbal or gesture abuse whilst on the underground. 2369 2123 1159 Notes: A. Figures use offences recorded as ‘violence’, further filtered on crime types with the keywords, ‘assault, harm, GBH, murder, injure’. As such, sexual assaults are excluded. B. Figures use offences recorded as ‘violence’ or ‘public order’, further filtered on crime types using the keywords, ‘threat, harass, stalking’. Public order and harassment offences may include those witnessing an offence as well any those targeted. C. ‘verbal/gesture abuse’ cannot be extracted from the BTP data. The figures include all public order offences and may include those witnessing an offence as well any those targeted. As the figures for B and C both include public order offences, they should not be summed as to do so would be double counting. c. The number of complaints made to TFL about the night tubes not fully reopening. TfL announced in October 2021 that the Night Tube on the Central and Victoria lines would be returning in time for the Christmas period after being suspended since March 2020 due to the pandemic. Since July 2021 we have received 21 complaints about the lack of a full service on the Night Tube. We run as many services as possible whilst seeking to secure the long-term, sustainable Government funding needed to go on supporting London’s recovery. Night Overground services also resumed on 17 December 2021. We continue to operate one of the most extensive night bus networks in the world and it continues to ensure everyone can travel around the capital whatever the hour. If this is not the information you are looking for please feel free to contact me. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
