Cornish Riviera sleeper service: dispensation from PRM-TSI

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Transport,

PRM-TSI 4.2.2.10 states:

"If there is more than one vehicle with sleeping accommodation for passengers in a train, there shall be not less than two wheelchair accessible sleeping accommodations in the train."

You have given GWR dispensation from this obligation. The dispensation spreadsheet for the Cornish Riviera Mark 3 sleeper stock states:

"The DfT advised that one accessible sleeping compartment will be acceptable for the GWR Riviera train formation."

This is on top of your dispensation granted for the number of seated wheelchair spaces on the train. The PRM-TSI specify there should be two seated wheelchair spaces and two wheelchair accessible sleeper berths on the train. You have reduced that to one wheelchair space and one sleeper berth.

I am struggling to see why the DFT have given such dispensation from the Europe-wide sleeper accessibility obligation; doing so appears to give disabled people less opportunity and choice. I don't see what is so different about the Riviera service that it only requires one sleeper berth, when all other sleeper services across Europe are mandated to have two.

1) Please provide recorded information that explains why you granted dispensation from the requirement that sleepers of the size of the Night Riviera must have two sleeper berths.

2) Please show which organisations you consulted on this dispensation, why you chose those organisations, and how the organisations responded to the consultation.

3) Please provide your Equality Impact Assessment of your decision to award this dispensation.

If the above is unlikely to provide me with the information I am seeking, please exercise your S16 obligation to assist me to formulate a request that is more likely to come up with the information I am after.

4) Please provide a link to the version of the PRM-TSI document you use for your dispensation spreadsheets and letters. The one I have, and every version I can find online, puts the wheelchair berth requirement at 4.2.2.10(2) but your dispensation refers to 4.2.2.11 instead.

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

Department for Transport

Dear Doug Paulley,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for information which
has been allocated reference number P0015105.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Digital Service
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

railvehicleaccess, Department for Transport

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Paulley,

 

Please find attached a response to your request of 14 August 2017.

 

Kind regards,

 

DfT Rolling Stock Team

 

[1][IMG]          Rolling Stock Team

4/16 GMH, Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 4DR  
[2]Follow us on twitter @transportgovuk 

 

Dear Department for Transport,

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

I am writing to request an internal review of Department for Transport's handling of my FOI request 'Cornish Riviera sleeper service: dispensation from PRM-TSI'.

1) You have refused my request because "the cost of complying with your request to find all relevant recorded information in that 5 year period would exceed £600." However that misrepresents my request. I did not ask for "all relevant recorded information", I asked for "recorded information that explains why you granted dispensation from the requirement that sleepers of the size of the Night Riviera must have two sleeper berths". I should hope you have recorded information that explains why you granted dispensation from that requirement, that should be readily available to you. Please provide that. There is no need to provide all recorded information going back 5 years - it wouldn't help and in any case I didn't request it.

2) You haven't told me what information you can provide within the cost limit. The ICO guidance to which you linked says

"62.
A public authority should inform the requestor of what information can be provided within the appropriate limit. This is important for two reasons: firstly, because a failure to do so may result in a breach of section 16. Secondly, because doing so is more useful than just advising the requestor to ‘narrow’ the request or be more specific in focus. Advising requestors to narrow their requests without indicating what information a
public authority is able to provide within the limit, will often just result in requestors making new requests that still exceed the appropriate limit."

3) You haven't responded "promptly", as required by the Act, You are obliged to respond "promptly", which is a separate and additional requirement on top of the obligation to respond within 20 working days. I do not consider that you have responded "promptly", given that you have exercised an exemption so didn't have to find the information in question.

4) You have neither provided the Equality Impact Assessment I requested, nor have you applied a suitable exemption.

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

Yours faithfully,

Doug Paulley

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

Dear Doug Paulley,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request for an internal review of our decision notice F0015105. We aim to respond to you on or before the 13th October 2017.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
FOI Advice Team, Digital Service, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate

Department for Transport
D/04, Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North,
St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7GA

FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT, Department for Transport

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Paulley

Your internal review (F0015105)

Please find attached the outcome of your internal review.

Yours sincerely

Ms Aimee Gasston FOI Advice Manager | FOI Advice Manager Digital Service, Group Assurance and Digital Directorate, Department for Transport

Dear FOI-ADVICE-TEAM-DFT,

Please refine the scope of the first question to ask to see the record of the decision to grant a dispensation for the Riviera Sleeper vehicles, including the statement on considerations of the Equality Duty which applies to public authorities, also the
stakeholder consultation responses, also the record of the decision to grant dispensation (which comprises a ‘signature minute’, or a summary request to grant dispensation as submitted to the Head of Interoperability)

Yours sincerely,

Doug Paulley

Department for Transport

Dear Mr Paulley,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your narrowed request for
information which has been allocated reference number P0015308.

A response will be issued to you in due course.

Regards,

Ivan Pocock
Department for Transport
FOI Advice Team
Digital Service
Zone D/04
Ashdown House
Sedlescombe Road North
St Leonards on Sea
East Sussex
TN37 7GA

railvehicleaccess, Department for Transport

3 Attachments

Dear Mr Paulley,

 

Please find attached information in response to your Freedom of
Information request regarding a dispensation granted to Great Western
Railway.

 

Kind regards,

 

DfT Rolling Stock Team