Request ID: FOI-4455-2324 Date published: 20 March 2024
You asked
How many incidents of graffiti in London Tunnels have been recorded for the last three years (2020-2023)?
How much did these cost to remove?
How soon after they were reported were they removed?
How many incidents of graffiti in London were recorded all together for the last three years (2020-2023)?
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-4455-2324
Thank you for your request received on 5 March 2024 asking for information about graffiti in London.
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 hold some of the information you require.
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.
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 over £450 to provide a response to your current request. This is because it is estimated that it would take in excess of 18 working hours to retrieve and compile the information you have requested.
Graffiti removal is carried out within the overall maintenance programmes managed by our contractors. They are responsible for removing graffiti from our assets which includes bus stations, shelters and stops, traffic signals, structures and signage (owned by TfL or on the TfL Road Network), tunnels, Legible London signs, safety and CCTV cameras, and variable message signs. In order to answer your request we would need to compile the information and manually extract the relevant information from the various sources. In addition we would also need to compile and extract the information for London Underground. This would take an excessive amount of time and would therefore exceed the ‘appropriate’ limit.
Please note that the costs for removal of graffiti are incorporated into the costs for cleaning and maintenance activities carried out across our network and assets. We do not hold information on how many incidents of graffiti there have been in London as we would only hold information for our network.
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. To assist you in doing so you may want to take a look at our published responses on this topic by searching for the term ‘graffiti’:
Please note that any future requests for information may still be refused under sections 31 - law enforcement, section 38 - health and safety, or section 43(2) – prejudice to commercial interests, dependent on the nature of your request. Please see a further explanation of why each of these exemptions might apply in a previous response we have issued:
If you want to refine your request or make a FOI Act request in future, please bear in mind that the FOI 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.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
