Dear Sir or Madam,

Following the recent ban on alcohol on the London public transport
network, I was wondering if it would be possible to see what (if
any) criteria that are being used to determine whether the ban has
been effective.

I'm interested in the criteria that have been defined by Transport
for London, or by the Mayor of London and his office, and then
given to TfL for use in any evaluation of the ban.

Thank you very much for your help.

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Bowden

Our Ref: 705922

Dear Mr Bowden

Thank you for your request for information dated 25/07/08 which was received by Transport for London on 25/07/08. This request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

We will aim to deal with your request promptly and provide you with a response by 22/08/08.

If you are unhappy with the response you receive, you may wish to use our complaints procedure by writing to Beverley Hall, Head of Customer Services & Consultation, at the address above, stating your concerns.

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

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely

Hayley James
Correspondence Manager (Policy)
London Buses
Customer Services

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Our Ref: 705922/1ABF
Date: 05 August 2008
Mr Andrew Bowden

[FOI #1443 email] <mailto:[FOI #1443 email]>

Dear Mr Bowden

Success Criteria for the London Transport Alcohol Ban

Thank you for your email received by Transport for London (TfL) on 23 July. You asked for information about the alcohol ban on London transport.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, and while it is not yet possible to determine this ban as being successful or not, TfL does hold some information that you may find useful.

TfL staff are actively enforcing the ban. In practical terms this means refusing entry through the gate line or asking a passenger not to board a bus, train or platform if they refuse to dispose of the alcohol. The approach taken by staff and other officials enforcing the ban is to make polite, courteous and non-confrontational requests to refrain from drinking or carrying open containers. Staff point out the new regulations and seek in most cases voluntary compliance with what is a civil matter. In the vast majority of cases this is being undertaken by TfL staff without any further need for intervention by the Police. For this reason, TfL has not required front line staff to record every incident when they have intervened or reminded passengers of the alcohol ban. This would require establishing a system of form filling and paperwork which would take uniformed staff away from their front line and primary role of providing customer services and visible reassurance. Feedback suggests that the public are complying with the ban and behaviour is changing.

You'll understand therefore, that it is too soon after the implementation of the ban for us to have any meaningful figures to draw any comparison between the levels of incidents before and after the ban.

Thank you once again for taking the time to write. Please feel free to contact me again if I can be of any further help.

Yours sincerely

Patricia Mitchell
Head of Customer Services

Your Right to Appeal

Internal Review

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 other than the person who made the original decision, in accordance with the complaints procedure published on our website at www.tfl.gov.uk/foi.

Requests for internal review should be addressed to:

Head of Information Access and Compliance
6th Floor Windsor House
42 - 50
Victoria Street
London
SW1H 0TL

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
www.ico.gov.uk

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