Request ID: FOI-4306-2324 Date published: 15 March 2024
You asked
I would like to make a request under the freedom of information act. Transport minister Huw Merriman recently confirmed that there are fortnightly meetings between the Department for Transport, Transport for London and London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham to discuss the Hammersmith Bridge remediation efforts, but that these meetings are not minuted.
Please can you send me any correspondence between representatives of the relevant parties relating to the organisation of these meetings and what will be or has been discussed in them.
Please send all correspondence from the start of 2023 to now.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-4306-2324
Thank you for your request received on 20 February 2024 asking for information about Hammersmith Bridge.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations (EIRs) and our information access policy.
When requests for email correspondence are received the FOI Case Management team may use a search tool which allows us to conduct companywide email searches using keywords, dates and email addresses. The more specific a requester can be as to what they are looking for, the more we can narrow the search and therefore stand a better chance of a more relevant or focused result. A search will then return an amount of ‘hits’ which potentially contain information relating to the search terms used. Each ‘hit’ is a single email, although that email will often consist of a chain of emails containing the search term at least once.
I can confirm that we do hold some of the information you require, however, currently the only way to identify information is via an email search. This search of emails containing the keyword “Hammersmith Bridge” in the specified timeframe produced 434 hits.
Each email would need to be extracted and manually checked to see if it was relevant to your request, and whether any exceptions to disclosure apply. We would also probably need to broaden the search terms further to ensure we had covered everything. As this would take an excessive amount of time, we are refusing your request under regulation 12(4)(b) of the EIRS.
We consider that providing the requested information would place an unreasonable burden on us, 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 regulation 12(4)(b), this does not reflect a conclusion that it has been your intention to deliberately place an undue burden on our resources.
The use of this exception is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to consider whether the public interest in applying the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. We recognise that the release of information would promote accountability and transparency in public services and also help address your particular concerns about this issue. However, the time it would take to provide the information you have requested would divert a disproportionate amount of our resources from its core functions and on balance we consider that the public interest currently favours the use of the exception.
We will consider your request again, if you are able to narrow its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you have specific questions we will be happy to consider those.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
