Correspondence between TFL and named individuals/organisations
Request ID: FOI-3066-2223 Date published: 17 March 2023
You asked
I have compiled two lists which can be seen below, "Organisations" and "Individuals". Please could I have a copy of all correspondence over the time period 5th May 2016 to 18th February 2023 between TFL and its staff and any of these individuals and/or staff at these organisations. Thank you.
Organisations:
Imperial College London
Jacobs UK Limited
Individuals:
Dr Gary Fuller
Dr Benjamin Barratt
Dr Leon Barron
Dr Sean Beevers
Dr David Green
Professor Klea Katsouyanni
Professor Frank Kelly
Ms Angela Lewis
Dr Iq Mead
Dr Ian Mudway
Dr Heather Walton
Dr Stephanie Wright
Dr Liang Ma
Professor Daniel Graham
Dr Marc Stettler
Stephen Rutherford
Annys O’Brien
John Pounder
Steve Isaac
We answered
TfL Ref: 3066-2223 Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18 February 2023 asking for information about correspondence between TfL and a list of individuals and organisations between 5 May 2016 and 18 February 2023. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. Specifically you asked: I have compiled two lists which can be seen below, "Organisations" and "Individuals". Please could I have a copy of all correspondence over the time period 5th May 2016 to 18th February 2023 between TFL and its staff and any of these individuals and/or staff at these organisations. Thank you. Organisations: Imperial College London Jacobs UK Limited Individuals: Dr Gary Fuller Dr Benjamin Barratt Dr Leon Barron Dr Sean Beevers Dr David Green Professor Klea Katsouyanni Professor Frank Kelly Ms Angela Lewis Dr Iq Mead Dr Ian Mudway Dr Heather Walton Dr Stephanie Wright Dr Liang Ma Professor Daniel Graham Dr Marc Stettler Stephen Rutherford Annys O’Brien John Pounder Steve Isaac I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, it is not possible to source it all within the costs limit for responding to requests as set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, a public authority such as TfL is not required 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. There is no quick or efficient way of sourcing all of the material that falls within the scope of your request. For example, while we can run an automated search of all emails between ourselves and one of the organisations you have listed, for example Jacobs using the email suffix of @jacobs.com, this will return a vast number of results, all of which would have to be reviewed and collated - TfL has partnered with Jacobs on a number of large scale projects across the time period covered by your request. To perform this task for this one element of your request would on its own trigger the costs limit. To perform the same task in relation to the other named individuals and organisations would take a considerable amount of additional time. It is noted that you have not specified any particular subject area in your request, although in any case, the same review of the results as explained above would still need to be carried out in order to extract those on a particular subject matter and this would be likely to result in the cost limit being exceeded again. In order to bring your request within the costs limit you may wish to consider narrowing its scope to focus on the information that is of most importance to you. Before doing so you may wish to review the advice and guidance offered by the Information Commissioner on how best to access information from public bodies, published on its website here (I would, in particular, point you to the table of “Dos and Don’ts” that can be found halfway down the page): https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information/ The narrower and more specific the scope of your request the more likely it is we will be able to respond positively within the costs limit. Please be aware also that the FOI Act pertains to recorded information only. There is no requirement to create new information nor to source information from third parties. If your interest is in the ULEZ expansion, a significant amount of information is already published which may be of interest to you here https://haveyoursay.tfl.gov.uk/cleanair and here https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone/ulez-expansion-2023. You will also find a significant volume of information published via FOI responses on this subject at the following link: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-information/search Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal. Yours sincerely, Sara Thomas FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
