Request ID: FOI-2979-2324 Date published: 18 December 2023
You asked
Dear Transport For London (TFL),
I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:
- The number of antisemitic graffiti incidents reported to the TFL in the last ten calendar years from 2014 to 2023 by months.
- The number of incidents reported every week starting from 4th September, 2023.
- What are the content of those graffitis and where were they found ?
- How many perpetrators have been arrested so far?
If you are unable to provide ten years of data, please provide it for the last seven years, otherwise please provide data for the last five years, three years, or the recent year. If you are unable to provide monthly data, please provide yearly data.
Many thanks,
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-2979-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on20 November 2023 asking for information about graffiti incidents reported to TfL.
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 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 cost over £450 to provide a response to your request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. The information you have requested relating to graffiti incidents can be recorded and reported in various formats. To answer your request, we would need to manually review considerable volumes of information across various sources to identify and extract information that would fall within the scope of your request, and then collate any relevant information we may hold that relates to antisemitism.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your request so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. You may also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time.
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 see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Abidakun FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
