Bus Complaints 38 and 221

The request was partially successful.

Dear Transport for London,
I would like to request all complaints and responses (phone,letter, web email) made regarding the bus routes 221 and 38 for the last 6 months of year 2015.

Yours faithfully,
Mr A Earle

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Earle

 

Our ref:  FOI-2135-1516

 

Thank you for your email received on 8 February 2016 asking for copies of
complaints relating to bus services 38 and 221.

 

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

 

A response will be provided to you by 7 March 2016. 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.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely

 

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

show quoted sections

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar...
2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/

FOI, Transport for London

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Earle

 

Our ref: FOI-2135-1516

 

Thank you for your email received on 8 February 2016 asking for copies of
complaints relating to bus services 38 and 221.

 

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that
we do hold the information you require.

 

Please find attached copies of complaints and responses regarding bus
routes 221 and 38 for the last 6 months of 2015 as requested.

 

Please note that in accordance with TfL’s obligations under the Data
Protection Act 1998 (DPA), personal information such as customers names,
email addresses and telephone numbers have been removed as required by
section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal
data would be a breach of the DPA, specifically the first principle of the
DPA which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful.
It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the
individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not
satisfied one of the conditions of Schedule 2 of the Data Protection Act
which would make the processing ‘fair’.

 

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

 

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

 

show quoted sections

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/

Dear Transport for London,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Transport for London's handling of my FOI request 'Bus Complaints 38 and 221'.

This is not a full list of complaints from the period requested; please have this matter reviewed and the complete list, or remainder supplied. Please have the lists sorted by route.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/b...

Yours faithfully,

Mr A Earle

FOI, Transport for London

Dear A Earle

IRV-110-1516

Thank you for your email which was received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14 March 2016.

You have stated that you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The review will be conducted by an internal review panel in accordance with TfL’s Internal Review Procedure, which available via the following URL:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/doc...

Every effort will be made to provide you with a response by 14 April 2016. However, if the review will not be completed by this date, we will contact you and notify you of the revised response date as soon as possible.

Please note your new Freedom of Information request will be dealt with separately in accordance with our Information Access Policy.

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

Yours sincerely

Emma Flint
Information Access Adviser
Transport for London
[TfL request email]

show quoted sections

FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Earle

IRV-110-1516

I am contacting you regarding the internal review of your request for information concerning bus complaints

This review has been carried out by an independent panel following your email 13 March 2016 regarding the response provided to your Freedom of Information request.

The panel have liaised with the customer service team who holds the information you have requested and can confirm that not all of the information you initially requested was provided to you in response to FOI-2135-1516. Please accept our sincere apologies for this error.

In the response provided to FOI-2135-1516 all complaints received via email, letter and our webform were provided to you with the full detail of each complaint as requested. However what was not provided were complaints that were logged onto our system via telephone call from customers.

The panel were advised that these were not provided due to the resource and time it would take to individually retrieve and extract each telephone call to be able to provide the detail you require. However the panel agreed that this issue should have been raised when originally sourcing the information for your FOI request so that it could have been addressed in accordance with the Act. In light of this the panel have reiterated to the individuals concerned their obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.

Attached you will find a list of all phone call complaints received regarding routes 38 and 221 for the time period you have specified with a brief summary of each complaint. However as explained above the time it would take to individually locate, retrieve and extract the full details of each telephone recording would exceed the appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Therefore the panel agree that section 12 of the FOI Act is engaged in this instance and we are unable to supply the full detail of each telephone complaint that you require as 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. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.

In conclusion the panel have upheld your complaint regarding the error in not including the all the complaints received for these route, but concur that section 12 is engaged regarding the provision of the full details of each telephone complaint.

I hope this clarification is of use to you however if you are dissatisfied with the internal review actions to date you can refer the matter to the independent authority responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Information Act, at the following address:

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

A complaint form is also available on the ICO’s website (www.ico.org.uk).

Yours sincerely

Emma Flint
Information Access Adviser
Transport for London
[TfL request email]

show quoted sections

Mr A Earle left an annotation ()

" It’s really important for us to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations. This means
your feedback will help us improve our services. "

Unfortunately as can be seen from the efforts to mask/ conceal the response to its complaints, TFL falls well short of my expectations. They need only input a few simple parameters into their computer database and it will produce all the information in seconds; yet they make out that it takes hours searching old filing systems.

"We do however expect the very highest standards of service from everyone representing London Buses"

"The safety of our customers and road users is our highest priority."

" We go to great lengths to train our bus drivers to very high standards."

"The level of service we provide to our customers is one of our highest priorities."

If this were true, then the conductors would never have been removed. In reality, it has never been proved that it is safe to combine the dangers of driving in a busy city, with customer service expectations. Perhaps the reason safety organisations like ROSCO, RoSPA and DSA do not endorse the TFL's 'Big Red Book'; or why there are bus incidents and accidents every day.