Expenditure on Consultants

Dear Steve

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18
January.

You have asked for a breakdown of what TfL has spent on consultants
detailing the consultant, the purpose and amount on each. Additionally you
have requested details of proposed spending on consultants by TfL until
2012.

We will deal with your request as soon as possible and in any case provide
you with a response by 15 February.

In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your
request, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Gareth Long
Customer Relations Officer

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Re: TfL102131

Dear Mr Martin

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18
January. I apologise for the slight delay in my response.

You have requested a breakdown of the expenditure by TfL on consultants
for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. You requested we provide information on
the consultants used, the amount spent and the purpose of the expenditure.
You also requested that we include within this scope all consultants,
including those used for design and management, and advice.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act and I can confirm that we do hold the information
you require.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed
the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450.00 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 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 £25.00 per hour for
every hour spent on the activities described.

We have estimated that it would cost £1,675.00 to provide a response to
your request as submitted to us.

This figure is based on the calculation of required resources from TfL
Accounts Payable and Procurement, having to search through our systems and
non-system files, identifying vendors that match the criteria outlined in
your request. Resources from Accounts Payable and Procurement would also
be required to recall files from off-site storage.

Report writers would then be required to create reports to extract data
available electronically.

Finally, resources from Accounts Payable, Procurement and Group Business
Planning & Performance (GBP&P) in consultation with the various modes of
transport, would be required to allocate vendors in line with request
variables. This would involve meeting with the modes to ascertain the
'purpose' of the work completed and planned by vendor and expenditure.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450.00
limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more
easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. For
example, you may wish to focus your request by being more specific about
the particular information you wish to obtain and including relevant
dates/timeframes.

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.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please read the attached
help-sheet entitled ‘Your Right to Appeal’

Yours sincerely
Gareth Long
Customer Relations Officer

Your right to appeal

If you are dissatisfied with the way TfL has handled your information
request, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of our decision. The
internal review will be conducted by someone who was not involved in the
processing of your original request, in accordance with the complaints
procedure published on our website at [1]www.tfl.gov.uk/foi

Requests for internal review should be addressed to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance
Floor 5, Windsor House
42-50 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0TL

E-mail: [2][email address]

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

If, following the internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way
TfL has handled your request, then you can take your complaint to:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office
website at: [3]www.ico.gov.uk

Copyright

Any copyright in the material provided with this response is owned by TfL
or one of its subsidiary companies unless otherwise stated. The disclosure
of information does not give the person or organisation who receives it an
automatic right to re-use it in a way that would otherwise infringe
copyright (for example, by making copies, publishing it, or issuing copies
to the public). Brief extracts of the material may be reproduced under the
fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
(sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial
purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. In respect
of use for criticism, review and news reporting, any reproduction must be
accompanied by an acknowledgement that TfL or one of its subsidiary
companies is the copyright owner.

Re-use

If you would like to re-use the information supplied with this response
please contact TfL using the details provided in the attached letter.
Requests for re-use will be considered in accordance with the Re-use of
Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.

show quoted sections

Re: TfL102131

Dear Mr Martin

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18
January.

You have requested a breakdown of the expenditure by TfL on consultants
for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009. You requested we provide information on
the consultants used, the amount spent and the purpose of the expenditure.
You also requested that we include within this scope all consultants,
including those used for design and management, and advice.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act and I can confirm that we do hold the information
you require.

Unfortunately, to provide the information you have requested would exceed
the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450.00 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 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 £25.00 per hour for
every hour spent on the activities described.

We have estimated that it would cost £1,675.00 to provide a response to
your request as submitted to us.

This figure is based on the calculation of required resources from TfL
Accounts Payable and Procurement, having to search through our systems and
non-system files, identifying vendors that match the criteria outlined in
your request. Resources from Accounts Payable and Procurement would also
be required to recall files from off-site storage.

Report writers would then be required to create reports to extract data
available electronically.

Finally, resources from Accounts Payable, Procurement and Group Business
Planning & Performance (GBP&P) in consultation with the various modes of
transport, would be required to allocate vendors in line with request
variables. This would involve meeting with the modes to ascertain the
'purpose' of the work completed and planned by vendor and expenditure.

To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450.00
limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more
easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. For
example, you may wish to focus your request by being more specific about
the particular information you wish to obtain and including relevant
dates/timeframes.

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.

If you are not satisfied with this response, please read the attached
help-sheet entitled ‘Your Right to Appeal’

Yours sincerely

Gareth Long
Customer Relations Officer

Your right to appeal

If you are dissatisfied with the way TfL has handled your information
request, you can ask us to conduct an internal review of our decision. The
internal review will be conducted by someone who was not involved in the
processing of your original request, in accordance with the complaints
procedure published on our website at [1]www.tfl.gov.uk/foi

Requests for internal review should be addressed to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance
Floor 5, Windsor House
42-50 Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0TL

E-mail: [2][email address]

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

If, following the internal review, you remain dissatisfied with the way
TfL has handled your request, then you can take your complaint to:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

A complaint form is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office
website at: [3]www.ico.gov.uk

Copyright

Any copyright in the material provided with this response is owned by TfL
or one of its subsidiary companies unless otherwise stated. The disclosure
of information does not give the person or organisation who receives it an
automatic right to re-use it in a way that would otherwise infringe
copyright (for example, by making copies, publishing it, or issuing copies
to the public). Brief extracts of the material may be reproduced under the
fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
(sections 29 and 30) for the purposes of research for non-commercial
purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. In respect
of use for criticism, review and news reporting, any reproduction must be
accompanied by an acknowledgement that TfL or one of its subsidiary
companies is the copyright owner.

Re-use

If you would like to re-use the information supplied with this response
please contact TfL using the details provided in the attached letter.
Requests for re-use will be considered in accordance with the Re-use of
Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.

show quoted sections