TfL Ref: FOI-4712-1718, FOI-4786-1718, FOI-4829-1718, FOI-4951-1718 and FOI-4986-1718
 
Thank you for your emails asking for information about the work of the Taxi & Private Hire directorate.
 
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.
 
However, in accordance with 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 of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
 
Under Regulation 5(2) of the Regulations, we are permitted to aggregate requests where they relate to any extent to the same or similar information and this aggregation applies to any requests that are received within a sixty working day period, including requests from individuals considered to be acting in concert.
 
We consider that the cost of complying with the five FOI requests referred to above from individuals we consider to be acting in concert, in pursuance of a campaign, would considerably exceed the cost limit. Therefore we are refusing the above requests.
 
As we have previously advised, before submitting future requests you should consider which information is of the highest priority to make best use of the processing time within the FOI Act described above. Similarly, please be aware that requests that are to any extent similar that we have identified as being made in concert will be considered together for the purposes of calculating the cost limit. Therefore, we recommend submitting single, complete requests for information across the full timeframe from one individual rather than splitting the request amongst different individuals and time periods as this will not circumvent the cost limit.
 
Furthermore, the Freedom of Information Act allows public authorities to refuse requests that are vexatious. The Information Commissioner has advised that
“If a public authority has reason to believe that several different requesters are acting in concert as part of a campaign to disrupt the organisation by virtue of the sheer weight of FOIA requests being submitted, then it may take this into account when determining whether any of those requests are vexatious.” By their nature, emails contain a significant amount of personal data such as phone numbers and email addresses and so, whilst this process of redaction does not feature as part of our considerations on whether the cost limit might apply, the burden created by requests covering a large number of emails is significant and this should be borne in mind before submitting further requests.
 
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Lee Hill
Information Access Manager
 
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London