Request ID: FOI-4527-2324 Date published: 28 March 2024
You asked
Dear Sir or Madam
I want to know what date, month and year that all bus map was started to finished no longer on this list with leaflet or booklet?
Central London Bus Map
London Night Bus Map
North East London Bus Map
North West London Bus Map
South East London Bus Map
South West London Bus Map
Can you send me back please
Thank you for your requests received by Transport for London (TfL) on 6, 13, 22 and 26 March 2024 asking for information about bus maps.
Your requests have been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy.
I can confirm that we do hold some of the information you require. However, we are refusing your request under section 14(1) of the Act.
You have sent multiple identical or similar requests to us, and other areas of TfL (Customer Services and the London transport Museum). Sending multiple requests to various different teams takes up a large amount of our resources in trying to provide you with responses, and you have not given us time to provide any response before sending a further request for either the same, or similar information. We simply do not have the resources to ascertain which of your requests are duplicates, or similar requests for the same information, and which have been answered by other areas of the business before trying to actually provide you with any information.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance states that one of the indicators of a request which may fall under section 14(1) is that it “appears to be part of a completely random approach, lacks any clear focus, or seems to have been solely designed for the purpose of ‘fishing’ for information without any idea of what might be revealed.”
The ICO guidance provides the following examples of a ‘fishing expedition’ request which may fall under section 14(1) if it:
- Imposes a burden by obliging the authority to sift through a substantial volume of information to isolate and extract the relevant details;
- Encompasses information which is only of limited value because of the wide scope of the request;
- Creates a burden by requiring the authority to spend a considerable amount of time considering any exemptions and redactions.
Our view is that all three of these examples apply in this instance.
We also have reason to believe that you may be using a pseudonym, or are working ‘in concert’ with others, as we have received similar, multiple requests on the same subject. Section 8 (1)(b) of the FOI Act indicates that the real name of the applicant should be used when requesting information and not any other name, for example, a pseudonym.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt
FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
