TfL Ref: 4291-1718

Thank you for your email received by us on 29 January 2018 asking for information about Oyster card data.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. You asked:

for the eight weeks up to 25 October 2017 please can we have:
 
I would like to know the total amount of off-peak PAYG charges applied to Oyster Cards for the most recent 12 months for cards that match the following criteria:
 
- Oyster Cards that have an annual travelcard loaded onto them, but do not have the Railcard Discount / Gold Card Discount applied.
 
This would be the total off peak-PAYG charges for traveling outside of the zones that the travelcard covers.
 
If it is not possible to have the eight weeks prior to this date please can we have the figures for the closest reporting period to it.

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, as we do not hold the information in a way which can be reported on without exceeding the ‘appropriate limit’. There are no existing reports that provide the specific transactional detail required to enable us to respond to your request and we estimate that it would take four to six working days to write the code to retrieve the information you have requested.

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 between £700 to £1050 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take four to six working days to retrieve and compile the information you have requested as we would have to develop, test and assure new software code to generate the data requested.

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 Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You should identify the information that you want as clearly and concisely as you can, specifying the types of document that you are looking for. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular period of time, geographical area or specific departments of the organisation.

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.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

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

Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London