TfL Ref 2677-2021 Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 22 March 2021 asking for information about the Congestion Charge. 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. Our response to your questions which are being considered under the FOI Act 2000 are as follows: 1. As for the numbers of victims; as Transport for London is a public funded body, under the Freedom of Information Act – 2000, I request to know how many other poor souls have suffered my experiences and have been brought to grief. This, irrespective of whether they struggle with mental health disorders or not. (page 8). Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested in answer to this question 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. We do not hold a reportable number of people that have complained about this issue, and the only way to collate this information would be to manually review our full complaints database which contains thousands of entries to locate any complaints describing the circumstances you’ve asked about, which would exceed the cost limit set out in section 12 of the FOI Act. 2. I suspect xxxx has good reason to be fearful, as an Impact Study might have exposed that Transport for London's lack of openness and transparency was causing harm. Under the Freedom of Information Act – 2000, I request to know if an Impact Study had been undertaken, and the findings of that study.(page 8). We don’t hold any impact assessment or study into our system on why we cannot tell drivers if they have entered the CC zone or not. The Congestion Charge operates using Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology. Each entry point to, and exit from, the Congestion Charge zone is clearly signed and as a vehicle either enters, leaves or drives within the zone its registration is recorded along with an image of the vehicle. At the end of the next charging day, when the payment period has expired, the list of vehicles observed in the zone is compared against the vehicles for which a charge has been paid and those which are 100% discounted, exempt from the charge or listed on a Congestion Charging Autopay account. Where a match is found the image and record of the vehicle is deleted. If no match is found the details are retained for enforcement purposes. As the vehicles entering the zone are not verified until after the payment period has expired we are unable to advise motorists whether they have been into the zone. Drivers can use the online location checker to see if they entered the zone if there is any doubt. This can be done using the following link here. Options are then available to either pay the charge for three charging days after entering the zone to avoid receiving a PCN. Drivers can pay on the day at the rate of £15 or the two days after at a rate of £17.50 giving a 96 hour window to make sure it is paid. If it is not paid then a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) is issued, and should the driver feel it is unjustified they can make a representation for us to investigate. We will always look into these cases fairly before making the appropriate decision on a case by case basis. Another option is to set up an Autopay account with us meaning that if you ever do enter the zone you will just be charged the daily rate and billed monthly and won’t need to check before you drive 3. As Transport for London is a public body, and public funded, I wish to know under the Freedom of Information Act – 2000, whether the letter I received from Mr Milton is a standard reply sent to all those not wishing to pay for an infringement which they may not have incurred. (page 12) We are unclear on precisely what letter you are referring to, however due to the volume of correspondence we process there are occasions where recurring subjects are featured and our replies to these can feature the use of standard replies to ensure consistency and remove ambiguity from our communications. 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, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation. 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. If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation. If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed. Yours sincerely Sara Thomas FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London