Our Ref: FOI-3241-1819

FOI Request – Lost Property

Thank you for your letter received on 28 February 2019 asking for information about lost property found on our network.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.

Over the past year, more than 340,000 items of Lost Property have been found on TfL’s services with more than a fifth (22 per cent) reunited with their owners. The Lost Property Office keeps all items for three months and tries to reunite them with their owners through contact information found on the property or through matching an item to a customer enquiry about a lost item. After three months, any unclaimed items have any personal data removed and securely destroyed before they are either donated to charities including The Salvation Army, The British Red Cross and Scope, or recycled, sold or disposed of. Any revenue generated from unclaimed items contributes towards the cost of running the Lost Property Office.

You asked:

1.    Please could you provide me with tables, broken down by month, showing the numbers of items of property that were (i) handed in as lost and (ii) returned, broken down by the category of the property for the 2018 calendar year?
2.    How much money was collected by TfL by auctioning/selling off items that had been lost by passengers and then not reclaimed in each of the last financial years (2017/18)?

The information you asked for, up to March 2018, is available on our website using the following link:

https://tfl.gov.uk/help-and-contact/lost-property#on-this-page-9

In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, TfL is not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.

The data for 2018/19 will be published in the summer as property found on some services in March can still be claimed until the middle of July.

3.    For the 2017 /18 financial years please state the three individual sales that made the most money. Please state what the lots consisted of and how much money Tfl received for each item?

The top 3 individual item sales for 2017-18 are listed below:

Listing Title Settlement
Apple Macbook Pro 13.3" A1706 Mid 2017 Core i7 500GB 16GB RAM £1,097.66
Chanel Women's Classic Beauty Lock Timeless Black Quilted Leather Handbag £998.17
Apple Macbook Pro 15.4" A1398 Mid-2015 (IG) Core i7 512GB SSD 16GB RAM £797.99

4.    Please state how many on the following items were (i) logged as lost property by Tfl and (ii) returned to the owner? (a) wigs, (b) sex toy/aids, (c) crutches, (d) prescription Viagra, (e) false limbs and (f) Security passes to the Houses of Parliament.

Please see the requested information for 2018 below:
Item Found on its own Found inside a bag / container with other property Returned to owner
Wig 43 97 10
Sex toy / Aid 7 18 6
Walking Aids 913 37 38
Prescription medication: Viagra 3 9 4
False Limbs 0 1 0
Security Passes - Houses of Parliament 0 0 0

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

Please see the enclosed information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
[email protected]