Our Ref:          FOI-4294-1718

Thank you for your request received on 26 January 2018 asking for information about severance/redundancy payments for IM staff.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
 
Detail of severance payments including the number and value of payments are published in the TfL Annual Report. Severance payments made in the year 2017/18 will be published in the 2017/18 Annual Report later this summer. This information is subject to an exemption under s22 of the Freedom of Information Act, on the grounds that the information is held with a view to its future publication. This exemption is subject to a consideration of the public interest. Whilst we recognise the interest in the number and value of severance payments made by TfL, we consider that this interest is met by the regular publication of the Annual Report.
 
In accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) Information identifying the people who have left, their position title, length of service, their grade, and the date they left our employment, is personal data and has been withheld under section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
 
This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the DPA, specifically the first principle of the DPA which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful.
 
Redundancy does not relate to an employee’s official functions and responsibilities, but instead signals the end of the relationship between TfL and the individual, which carries a strong expectation of privacy. There is a public interest in the expenditure of public funds, and this interest is met by the publication in the Annual Report of the number and cost of compulsory and voluntary severance termination packages agreed during the year. This publication is in accordance with Section 3 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, and by the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, in which Parliament has set out its expectation for the appropriate level of public sector transparency in relation to severance payments.
 
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]