Please can I have the following information by the Freedom of information Act: How many Licenced Taxi Drivers have had their licences revoked or suspended due to depression, anxiety or any other mental health condition over the following years?: 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018.

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TfL Ref: FOI-3237-1819 

 

Thank you for your request dated 26 February 2019 asking for the number of taxi driver licences that we have revoked or suspended due to drivers failing to meet certain DVLA group 2 medical requirements. 

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy.  You asked:  

 

How many Licenced Taxi Drivers have had their licences revoked or suspended due to depression, anxiety or any other mental health condition over the following years?: 

 

2014 

2015 

2016 

2017 

2018. 

 

I can confirm that we hold this information. However, to provide it to you 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 exceed the cost limit to provide a response to your request. This is because our records show that there are over 500 drivers who have failed to meet DVLA group 2 medical standards in the timeframe you have requested. The guidelines cover a wide variety of medical disorders and we would have to manually check the individual driver files to identify and extract the information you have requested. The overall time this would take would significantly exceed the cost limit under FOI.  

 

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 us. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation. 

 

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 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 do not hesitate to contact me. 

 

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.  

 

Yours sincerely  

 

 

Sara Thomas 

FOI Case Management Team 

General Counsel 

Transport for London 

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