I would like to get the archive of information that has appeared on London's Register of Roadworks (http://public.londonworks.gov.uk/roadworks/home) since its inception. This should include Type, Reference, Location, Status, Works Owner, Street Authority, Description, Dates and any other captured information. Could I have this as a csv file please?

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TfL Ref: 3640-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7 March 2020 asking for archived information that has appeared on London's Register of Roadworks since its inception.

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. You asked:  I would like to get the archive of information that has appeared on London's Register of Roadworks (http://public.londonworks.gov.uk/roadworks/home) since its inception.

This should include Type, Reference, Location, Status, Works Owner, Street Authority, Description, Dates and any other captured information.  Could I have this as a csv file please?

However, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act.  After reviewing a sample of our records we consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us. Our principal duty is to provide an effective transport service for London, particularly in these unprecedented times and we consider that answering this request would represent a disproportionate effort. 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.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance states that one of the indicators of a request which may fall under section 14(1) is that it “appears to be part of a completely random approach, lacks any clear focus, or seems to have been solely designed for the purpose of ‘fishing’ for information without any idea of what might be revealed.”

The ICO guidance provides the following examples of a ‘fishing expedition’ request which may fall under section 14(1) if it:

- Imposes a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details;

- Encompasses information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request;

- Creates a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions.

Our view is that example 2 and 3 in particular apply in this instance.

The Public Register only stores data for work happening up to 3 months in the future and for 2 weeks in the past. It also does not hold data indefinitely. To get the information requested we would need to extract the historic data from our central database where we have around 12 years of data stored.

In order to extract the complete archive of the London Register of Works  we would need to request all relevant off-site stored back ups, ensure there is adequate storage space is available on the infrastructure and begin restoring the information required. The process would involve closely monitoring the restore jobs and swapping back up storage media as they are restored. It is likely that this process would have to take place outside office hours to avoid risking IT performance issues.  We estimate that the data will amount to in the region of several hundred Gb of data going back 10+ years so if the data couldn’t be downloaded in CSV format directly, it would also have to be converted and probably into several different CSV files which would increase the burden of work.

We consider the burden of retrieving, reviewing and redacting the information would be disproportionate to the benefit of providing it. Therefore we are refusing it under s.14 of the FOI Act. If you would like to re-submit a more focused, specific request then we will, of course, consider it.

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.

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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