The number of reasonable adjustments in the work place made in TfL in the last 2 years
Request ID: FOI-3886-2324 Date published: 15 February 2024
You asked
Can you confirm how many staff at TFL have requested reasonable adjustments in the work place and of these how many was refused in the last two years. Could you also confirm if staff members pay themselves for Doctors reports.
We answered
TfL Ref: 3886-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 25 January 2024 asking for information about reasonable adjustments.
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: Can you confirm how many staff at TFL have requested reasonable adjustments in the workplace and of these how many was refused in the last two years. Could you also confirm if staff members pay themselves for Doctors reports.
With regard to the first part of your request asking about the number of requests for reasonable adjustments made by TfL staff in relation to their workplace in the last two years and how many were subsequently refused, we do not record this information centrally, which is the case for both ‘soft’ (changes to ways of working) and ‘hard’ (equipment, technology) adjustments. Some ‘soft’ adjustments are just made informally between a member of staff and their line manager and may not be recorded.
Therefore, in order for us to identify and extract the information you have requested, we would need to manually review thousands of individual personnel records in order to identify any requests made for reasonable adjustments by a member of staff. This task in itself would exceed the cost limit to conduct. Any identified requests would then need to be collated and a further review of each case would need to be carried out to see if the request was refused or agreed. Your request is therefore being refused under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not obliged to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if the requested information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work.
In relation to your second question, we can confirm that the answer is no, not if a Doctor’s report is requested by the Occupational Health department.
To help bring the cost of responding to your requests within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider refining your requests to concentrate on matters which are important to you.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, please be aware that, under the FOI Act, we do not have to answer a request 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 the request. On this basis, the last part of your request does not fall under the FOI Act 2000. We understand however that you are in contact with our taxi and private hire licensing team on this issue.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
Sara Thomas FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
