Audio CD

Dear Ms Hoare

Our Ref:         FOI-2708-1718

Thank you for your request received on 19 December 2017 asking for a copy
of the London Underground, Overground, DLR and iBus announcements.

Your request will be processed in accordance with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. 

Your request will be processed by TfL, the Greater London Authority and
its subsidiaries to provide you with a response in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. If you could
please send a postal address you would like the CD sent to FOI @
tfl.gov.uk (no spaces). Please note that as whatdotheyknow.com is a public
website you may wish to send your address details from a private e-mail
address so that it does not appear on the website.

A response will be sent to you by 22 January 2018. We publish a
substantial range of information on our website on subjects including
operational performance, contracts, expenditure, journey data, governance
and our financial performance. This includes data which is frequently
asked for in FOI requests or other public queries. Please check
[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar... to see if this helps you.

We will publish anonymised versions of requests and responses on the
[2]www.tfl.gov.uk website. We will not publish your name and we will send
a copy of the response to you before it is published on our website.

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please
do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[3][TfL request email]

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Dear Ms Hoare

Our Ref:          FOI-2708-1718

Thank you for your request received on 19 December 2017 asking for a copy
of the London Underground, Overground, DLR and iBus announcements.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and TfL’s information access policy. I can
confirm we do hold the information you require.

A CD containing the iBus and London Overground announcements has been sent
to you in the post.

It should be noted that the iBus announcements are recorded as fragments.
As a result, some announcements would not feature in full as the full
announcement would just be made up of two or more fragments that have
already been recorded. They were originally recorded for the iBus rollout
over a period of two years in 20 sessions. Numerous CDs and folders were
set up in this process and so unfortunately they are not all held
centrally. Some of the current iBus recordings may also be made up of
fragments that are no longer used.

Announcements used on the services that London Overground took over from
Abellio Greater Anglia on 31 May 2015 are not held as audio files. They
are held on a server and we access them through existing server and
rolling stock. I can confirm that we have no current plans to create any
new recordings.

Please also note that while access to this material will be provided to
you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you are not granted any
rights to any of the intellectual property that exists in it or granted
any permission to make secondary uses of it.

TfL owns all intellectual property (including, without limitation,
copyright) in the material supplied and will defend such rights.

If you wish to make any secondary use of the material provided, you must
first obtain the consent of TfL (which may be withheld) and, if consent is
granted, a fee may be charged, in accordance with the terms of the Reuse
of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005.

In regard to the DLR audio announcements for the trains and stations, we
do not hold this information. The on train announcements for DLR are not
held in any central repository and are not ‘recorded ‘ as such. These are
done digitally as needed by typing them into a system, combining
previously typed announcements where necessary. It is therefore not
possible to provide an audio recording, as requested. The station
announcements are held on a central system but not in a form that allows
them to be distributed.

In accordance with the FOI Act, TfL is not obliged to supply the audio
files for London Underground’s Tube announcements as the information is
subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information
under section 43(2).

In this instance section 43(2) has been applied as disclosure of the
information requested would be likely to prejudice the commercial
interests of TfL and/or Global Services Ltd. The recordings in question
were provided to London Underground from Global Services Ltd under a
signed contract which contained explicit conditions concerning disclosure
and distribution.

The contract specifies that the recordings are solely to be used for the
purpose for which they were created and for broadcast on the London
Underground network only. If TfL were to disclose these recordings in
response to an FOI request, it would constitute an actionable breach of
contract and would be likely to result in a valid legal claim against
London Underground or the license to use the recordings being withdrawn,
which would impose additional, unnecessary, costs. TfL wishes to protect
its commercial interests and ability to participate in future commercial
activity. The disclosure of this information would be to the detriment of
present and future business activities for both parties.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public
interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. TfL
recognises the need for openness and transparency within public
authorities and the degree of public interest concerning London transport
announcements in light of the recent disclosure of iBus announcements.
However, in this instance this is outweighed by the damage that would be
done to TfL’s ability to use these recordings and any future contractual
negotiations that may take place regarding the London Underground
announcements.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would
like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[1][TfL request email]

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