Our Ref:          FOI-3064-1819

Your Ref:        SDH/123621/1

Thank you for your request received on 8 February 2019 asking for information about escalators on the London Underground.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and TfL’s information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested in Q2, and Q 9-11 of your request 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 current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take more than 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.

A decision was made several years ago that edge demarcation (yellow boundary lines) was not required other than that required by the British Safety standards (BN EN115). This is a bevelled line within the tread cleats at the front and back of the step only. There are a number of escalators that have yellow edging from installation in the late 90s, however we do not have a central record of where these escalators are. In order to collate this information we would need to visit each of the escalators on our network. Additionally, we would also need to check whether we hold information on when the step edging was installed to determine whether the incidents were before or after it was installed.

We believe we could provide information on parts 1, 3-6 of your request within the cost limit. Please see our advice regarding Q7 and Q8 of your request:

7. Any breakdown of how many of the accidents identified in 3 and 5 above affected people with a disability (and details of the disability);

We do not hold this information as we do not categorise whether a person is disabled.

8. Any breakdown of how many of the accidents identified in 3 and 5 above affected people over the age of 65;

We have limited information on the age of customers, as not all incidents will have a person’s age recorded. Therefore any information we hold may not provide an accurate representation.

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 Transport for London. 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 TfL.

Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, TfL does 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 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 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
[email protected]