F/on from FOI-2896-1819 Thanks for your response. Please narrow down my request to the following. I would like to know the total number of times ticket inspectors travelled on London Underground services in 2018, and the total number of passengers who were stopped by ticket inspectors for not being in possession of valid ticket/pass in 2018. I do not need it broken down by line, just two separate figures. Please treat it as two separate requests if you think it will surpass the 18-hour limit.

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TfL Ref: FOI-3141-1819

Thank you for your email of 18^th February 2019 asking for information about the use of ticket inspectors on the London Underground in the year 2018.

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 that we hold the information requested. Specifically you asked:

“I would like to know the total number of times ticket inspectors travelled on London Underground services in 2018, and the total number of passengers who were stopped by ticket inspectors for not being in possession of valid ticket/pass in 2018.”

In answer to the second part of the request, in the financial year 2017/18 London Underground inspectors issued 24,093 Penalty Fares and submitted 4,925 irregularity reports for passengers not being in possession of a valid ticket/pass.

In relation to the first part of the request, to provide this information 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 it, retrieving it and extracting it, would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

TfL does not record, in any one reporting system, the total number of times ticket inspectors travelled on the Underground in any given year. To collate this information we would need to manually check every duty sheet for every inspector for every day of the year. There are around 145-150 inspectors employed at any one time each undertaking around 200 duties in a year – meaning that to calculate exactly how many individual tube journeys were made we would need to inspect at least 29,000 records. We therefore estimate it would take in excess of 18 hours to source the information requested, and hence the costs exemption is engaged.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope, bearing in mind the advice above and in our previous responses.

Please note that we will not be taking any further action unless we receive a new request.

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,

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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