Request ID: FOI-3622-2324 Date published: 02 February 2024
You asked
Attn: TfL FOI Officer
I wish to know, since the recent expansion of the ULEZ zone, how many payments have been made when the vehicle in respect of which the payment was made was not registered by your tracking system as being within the ULEZ zone in that charging period.
We answered
TfL Ref: 3622-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 11 January 2024 asking for information about the ULEZ.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You specifically asked: I wish to know, since the recent expansion of the ULEZ zone, how many payments have been made when the vehicle in respect of which the payment was made was not registered by your tracking system as being within the ULEZ zone in that charging period.
We do not hold the information you have requested. To explain further, if a charge payment is made and the vehicle then does not travel in the zone, we would not know unless the customer contacts us to let us know. Vehicles entering the zone are not verified until after the payment period has expired and where a charge payment has been made, the record is deleted.
The ULEZ operates using Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology. Each entry point to the zone is clearly signed and as a vehicle either enters, leaves or drives within the zone its registration is recorded along with an image of the vehicle. At the end of the third charging day after the day of travel in the zone, when the payment period has expired, the list of vehicles observed in the zone is compared against the vehicles for which a charge has been paid and those which are 100% discounted, exempt from the charge or listed on a Road User Charging Autopay account. Where a match is found the image and record of the vehicle is deleted. If no match is found the details are retained for enforcement purposes.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Sara Thomas FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
