Request ID: FOI-2836-2122 Date published: 31 March 2022
You asked
Revised request from FOI-2708-2122:
1. Please could you tell me how many complaints of racism/homophobia in relation to words used or behaviour exhibited were made against your employees in (i) 2018/19, (ii) 2019/20, (iii) 2020/21 and (iv) the current financial year up to 31.1.22.
2. For each proven claim of racism/homophobia in (i) 2018/19, (ii) 2019/20, (iii) 2020/21 and (iv) the current financial year up to 31.1.22 could you provide me with a summary of the allegation that was made ensuring no personal details are revealed. Please be sure to provide the specific racist/homophobic language that was complained about if it made up part of the complaint.
3. Please provide me with a table showing what sanctions, if any, were taken against staff in relation to these proven claims?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2836-2122
Thank you for your revised request received on 14 March 2022 asking for information about complaints made against staff for racist behaviour.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would still 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, and then locating and retrieving it, or 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, which equates to 18 hours work.
We have estimated that your revised request would still cost in excess of £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take over 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. We are unable to differentiate between the different types of cases we process or whether they were proved. If an employee is found guilty of harassment and bullying they are referred to a Company Disciplinary Interview (CDI). There have been a total of 958 cases that have gone to a CDI. We are not able to breakdown the reasons for these, or report on the individual outcomes, without manually reviewing each of these cases.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider further narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking, bearing in mind the information above.
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
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
