Request ID: FOI-3508-2324 Date published: 30 January 2024
You asked
Please provide a weekly number of penalty fares for fare evasion from the start of 2019 till present on TfL Underground network.
Please provide a weekly report of prosecutions for fare evasion from the start of 2019 till present.
Please provide the number of app alerts of fare evasion created by TfL staff for fare evasion from 2018 until present. Can you break the information down by month or annually?
Please give a breakdown of the number of app alerts reported by TfL staff by London Underground station from 2018 to present. Can you give the information by month or annually?
Can you provide the monthly or annual data for the number of times a person has jumped a barrier without paying since 2018?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-3508-2324 Thank you for your request received on 3 January 2024 asking for information about fare evasion. 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 some of the information you require. We take fare evasion extremely seriously and our team of 450 revenue inspectors operate across our network day and night, using new technology and intelligence to identify anyone travelling without a ticket. Through continued partnership working with the police and intelligence gathering, we push for the toughest penalties for anyone caught fare evading on our services. Fare evasion takes away vital revenue for us to reinvest in our transport network to keep London moving. We have strategies in place to tackle fare evasion head on and a commitment to reduce any form of ticketing irregularities. Efforts to tackle fare evasion have been helped by changes to the way we manage our stations, with more staff visible in and around stations including on gate lines and changes to our ticketing system. The penalty fare is one of several tools available to minimise this revenue loss and deter individuals from committing fare evasion. Penalty Fare Notices (PFNs) are issued in lieu of initiating a criminal prosecution following fare evasion, where the evader is not suspected of fraudulent, deliberate, and repeated fare evasion. Fare evasion is a criminal offence that could lead to prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000 and a criminal record. Staff at our London Underground stations can report instances of fare evasion through an app on their tablet devices. These reports are monitored by our Operational Insight and Analysis team who then advise where enforcement officers should be deployed. We have seen an upsurge in reporting from our frontline teams as we have been encouraging reporting, and staff have seen how their reports help determine the deployment of revenue enforcement teams. These reports are not an accurate measure of the level of fare evasion as our frontline colleagues are often busy responding to questions and queries from customers and supporting our reliable operation, which will take them away from the gateline. You asked:
1. Please provide a weekly number of penalty fares for fare evasion from the start of 2019 till present on TfL Underground network. Penalty Fare - London Underground
Year
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
P8
P9
P10
P11
P12
P13
2018/19
1590
2014
2429
2019/20
1400
1630
1647
1686
1428
1402
1809
1669
1322
581
1694
1316
770
2020/21
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
27
43
0
0
0
2021/22
240
511
458
533
465
446
586
798
495
195
592
567
975
2022/23
1030
1065
529
913
569
641
1089
885
897
338
797
600
857
2023/24
1102
1159
969
918
1383
856
785
977
793
768
N/A
N/A
N/A
Please note that we record information by four week financial periods, please see the attached spreadsheet for the corresponding dates. The number of penalty fares issued during the height of the pandemic in 2020/21 fell as revenue teams were carrying out the enforcement of Government covid regulations and conditions of carriage to keep everyone travelling safe. Passenger numbers were also significantly lower. All of our revenue teams have now returned to their core activity of tackling fare evasion. 2. Please provide a weekly report of prosecutions for fare evasion from the start of 2019 till present. Prosecutions - London Underground
Year
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
P8
P9
P10
P11
P12
P13
2018/19
401
442
493
2019/20
323
342
275
308
265
243
373
332
239
115
303
354
216
2020/21
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
9
0
2
2
2021/22
43
166
196
181
208
187
209
220
200
88
268
172
246
2022/23
466
507
301
372
285
295
358
322
247
125
307
216
524
Prosecutions - All modes
Year
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
P8
P9
P10
P11
P12
P13
2018/19
2,903
3,152
3,438
2019/20
2,526
3,081
2,631
2,492
2,143
2,088
2,618
2,129
2,253
1,390
2,290
2,340
1,132
2020/21
0
0
0
0
1
4
1
3
10
9
0
2
2
2021/22
66
232
356
414
461
500
745
888
892
487
969
988
1,135
2022/23
1,421
1,615
1,245
1,544
1,474
1,296
1,539
1,597
1,217
642
1,609
1,654
1,912
In accordance with the FOI Act, TfL is not obliged to supply you with the information requested for 2023/24 (to January 2024) as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information, under Section 22 of the Act. In this instance the exemption has been applied as the information you have requested is intended for future publication. The information you have requested is intended for future publication on our website, when we report later on prosecution levels. We expect this information to be published in February 2024.
3. Please provide the number of app alerts of fare evasion created by TfL staff for fare evasion from 2018 until present. Can you break the information down by month or annually? Please see the ‘Revenue’ column in the attached table for London Underground staff. Not all of our services have reporting systems and we do not hold information for all franchise modes. Please note there will be incidents where fare evasion has been recorded as anti-social behaviour. 4. Please give a breakdown of the number of app alerts reported by TfL staff by London Underground station from 2018 to present. Can you give the information by month or annually? Please see the table below for all app alerts reported by London Underground staff:
Calendar Year
Total App Alerts
2018
446,996
2019
437,817
2020
291,041
2021
372,657
2022
499,424
2023
756,619
A full breakdown by London Underground stations is provided in the spreadsheet attached. 5. Can you provide the monthly or annual data for the number of times a person has jumped a barrier without paying since 2018? Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would still 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, and then locating and retrieving it, or 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, which equates to 18 hours work.
We have estimated that it would cost over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. In order to collate this information every individual report categorised as anti-social behaviour would have to be read to determine if it including people jumping over the barrier. 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, bearing in mind the information above. 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.
Yours sincerely Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London [email protected]
