FOI request detail

Staff magazines and newsletters.

Request ID: FOI-3628-1920
Date published: 20 March 2020

You asked

FOI-3360-1920 clarification: Those issued Corporately to all members of staff across TfL would be great. A time frame from 01/01/2019 to the present date would be ideal. Thanks for replying to my request and I completely understand and appreciate the scope of my initial request -thanks for clarifying and putting it into perspective. If I may ask a revised request based on a much smaller scale than the first one - would you kindly supply me with staff newsletters/magazines regarding Revenue Inspection/Protection (road and tube) that will not incur unnecessary costs to you in supplying such I will be most grateful for this

We answered

TfL Ref: 3628-1920

Thank you for your request received by us on 1 March 2020 asking for information about our staff newsletters/magazines issued since 1 January 2019

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

However, after reviewing a sample of our records we consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us and therefore engage section 14(1) of the FOI Act.

We have two staff magazines called ‘On The Move’ which is primarily for London Underground staff and is issued monthly, and ‘Up Front’  which is a monthly digital magazine produced primarily for Surface Transport staff. We don’t produce a magazine issued to all staff across the organisation, however both On The Move and Up Front are available to all staff online. They will contain varying articles and information, some of which are likely to relate to security, revenue protection and inspection and contain personal data.

Your request captures 25 magazines in total, which average 12 pages each of large and smaller print articles, photographs, internal processes, news and other staffing matters.  We consider the burden of reviewing each page of each magazine to consider what exemptions may apply and redact all the required information would be a significant task and would be disproportionate to the benefit of providing it.

Our principal duty is to provide an effective transport service for London and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort, especially in these unprecedented times. It would be a significant distraction from our work managing the TfL network, requiring re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. We do wish to clarify that whilst we consider that your request falls under section 14(1) of the FOI Act, this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources..

Therefore because of strain on staff time and resource in trying to provide the information being sought, we are refusing your request under s.14 of the FOI Act.

The Government announced new measures on 16 March 2020 to tackle the Coronavirus. It is critical for London, and in particular for all essential workers and services, that we continue to provide the best transport service we can.

If you are considering submitting an new FOI request we urge you to think carefully whether the request is essential at this time. Answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity.

Where requests are made, please note that our response time is likely to be affected by the current situation. If you do submit a request, please use the form below or email [email protected] rather than send by post.

If you would like to re-submit a more focused, specific request for example for a particular article or aspect of revenue protection then we will, of course, consider it, although it is likely to attract an exemption under the law enforcement exemption of the FOI Act f it’s about our internal processes around fare evasion.

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

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