Request ID: FOI-3146-2223 Date published: 07 March 2023
You asked
Dear Sir/Madam
Please can you supply me with a list of all legal firms which have successfully represented appellants against Red Route PCNs.
Please provide as many as possible within the limit of £450 as specified on your website, working back from the most recent success.
Could you forward purely each firm name and a description of the appeals that were successful?
I have emailed Howard Carter, the General Counsel, regarding this so your urgent attention would be appreciated.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-3146-2223
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 23rd February 2023 asking for information about legal representation for drivers challenging Penalty Charge Notices.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“Please can you supply me with a list of all legal firms which have successfully represented appellants against Red Route PCNs. Please provide as many as possible within the limit of £450 as specified on your website, working back from the most recent success. Could you forward purely each firm name and a description of the appeals that were successful?”
I can confirm that we hold the information you require. However, I am afraid that as this information has not been collated before there is no way to source it other than by reviewing each individual PCN representation on an individual basis (from which it should be apparent whether legal representation was engaged). Given the numbers involved this is not possible within the costs limit for responding to FOI cases, as set under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not obliged to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the requested information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extrcat that information from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work. Note that the guidance issued by the Information Commissioner on applying the exemption (see here) states at paragraph 30 that:
“A public authority is not obliged to search up to the appropriate limit.”
There is no obligation, therefore, for us to “provide as many as possible within the limit of £450...working back from the most recent cases”. Rather, in order to receive any such information, you would need to specify what particular timeframe your request relates to. That said, note that last year we received 130,108 representations against Red Route PCNs, or about 2,500 per week on average, or around 356 a day. Colleagues estimate that to review one case and extract the information you are seeking would take around 10 minutes per case. Furthermore, note that in reality very few people use legal representation as the appeals process is free and designed to be clear and user friendly, and therefore the use of a legal professional is not usually deemed necessary.
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
