Request ID: FOI-2670-2122 Date published: 02 March 2022
You asked
How many complaints have been received or appeals made citing lack of information or poor signage?
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-2670-2122
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 17th February 2022 asking for information about ULEZ signage complaints and appeals.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“How many complaints have been received or appeals made citing lack of information or poor signage?”
I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, it is not possible to source the necessary information within the costs 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 that 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 case, the exemption applies because there is no quick or efficient way of sourcing the data to answer your question. The information has not been collated before, and the only way of doing so would be to individually review many thousands of complaints / representations - back to the beginning of the ULEZ scheme in 2019 - to determine whether they contain any reference to “lack of information” or “poor signage”. This could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
In order to bring your case within the costs limit you may wish to narrow it scope. For example, we would be able to report on the number of representations received where the principle reason logged was “signage”, but this would not include any representations where signage was raised as a secondary, additional reason for a represenation. In such an event you may also wish to stipulate a specific timeframe that you are interested in.
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
