Request ID: FOI-3551-2324 Date published: 02 February 2024
You asked
This is an information request relating to the TFL Busking
Please include the following information for each of the following financial years: 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23
• Which stations are sanctioned to allow buskers and what is the total number of stations.
• Total revenue made from busking licence fees
• Total number of complaints received pertaining to buskers and which stations they occurred at.
• Total number of busking applications have been received and how many have been approved
• The annual administration cost to the TFL busking scheme
• Are there any associated costs for monitoring and enforcement activities? If so, what are these costs and how much has been spent?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-3551-2324
Thank you for your request received on 9 January 2024 asking for information about busking on our network. 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 do hold the information you require. You asked: • Which stations are sanctioned to allow buskers and what is the total number of stations For the past 20 years, the buskers on our licensed busking scheme have brought moments of delight and surprise to our customers. Our buskers play all genres of music – from classical to jazz to rock to pop – and reflect the cultural diversity of London. Whether it’s hearing Welsh hymns played on a melodeon, or a Charles Mingus saxophone cover echoing down the tunnel at Tottenham Court Road, or listening to an operatic aria soar above in the bustle at Oxford Circus, our licensed buskers help to bring the unexpected to our customers’ journeys. They are now part of the fabric of the London Underground, and our system is a model that has been studied by metros around the world.
We currently have 41 pitches at 29 London Underground stations; the number of pitches and stations may increase or decrease based on engineering works at stations. In 2023, we opened two new pitches on the Elizabeth line station at Bond Street, but also temporarily closed a pitch at King’s Cross station due to works on an escalator.
Please see the list of stations below:
• Angel • Bank • Baker Street • Bond Street • Bayswater • Chancery Lane • Canary Wharf • Charing Cross • Euston • Green Park • Kings Cross • London Bridge • Liverpool Street • Leicester Square • Maida Vale • Marble Arch • North Greenwich • Oxford Circus • Piccadilly Circus • Shoreditch High Street • Southwark • South Kensington • St. Paul’s • Stratford • Tottenham Court Road • Victoria • Waterloo • Westminster
• Total revenue made from busking licence fees We do not make revenue from busking. Buskers do not pay for their license and we do not take any money from buskers.
• Total number of complaints received pertaining to buskers and which stations they occurred at Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested 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 cost over £900 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 36 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested. We do not have a specific category for ‘busking’ that we can use to filter complaints by. Therefore we would need to do a keyword search of the terms “busker/busking” of all of the enquiries we receive via our Customer Contact Centre. It takes approximately one hour for one months’ worth of data to be pulled from our system. We would then need to review each of the cases identified to determine whether it was a complaint about buskers/busking and not, for example, someone applying to be a sanctioned busker.
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 FOI Act request in future, please bear in mind that the FOI Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. 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. • Total number of busking applications have been received and how many have been approved We are currently in the middle of our busking application process, and will have these figures for 2023-2024 by the end of March 2024. Applications must go through an audition process. There were no busking auditions held from 2020-2022. • The annual administration cost to the TFL busking scheme The busking scheme is administered by our staff as part of their wider roles. The scheme spends approximately £75,000 per year on Performing Rights Society (PRS) fees. PRS payments are made by calendar year, not financial year: 2020: £3,735.84 2021: £49,079,68 2022: £79,224.88 2023: £72,123.11 The variance in these numbers is due to the COVID pandemic, which led to the shutdown of the busking scheme on the network at different times in 2020 and 2021. These costs make up the majority of the scheme. In 2020-21, an additional £10,000 was spent on costs associated with the computer system used to administer booking of pitches. Additional amounts are spent on busking vinyl replacement and license cards for buskers. • Are there any associated costs for monitoring and enforcement activities? If so, what are these costs and how much has been spent? There are no associated costs for monitoring and enforcement activities. The scheme is administered by TfL staff. If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, 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
