Costs of "SAP"

The request was successful.

Dear Transport for London,

I am aware that you use a system named "SAP".

Please provide me with the following information:

1) When was this service implemented?

2) What is the annual cost to this service?

3) I believe that SAP may be charged to you on a per-user basis, if this is correct, what is the cost per person?

4) Have any alternative systems been considered? If SAP is part of a contract, does it ever open up for retendering (aka allow other companies to pitch their solutions)?

5) How many users are there on SAP?

Yours faithfully,

Lewis Western

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Western,

 

TfL Ref: FOI-0322-1920

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 30^th
April 2019 asking for information about the SAP system used at TfL.

 

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 sent to you by 30^th May 2019. 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,

 

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

 

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FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Western,

 

Freedom of Information Requests

 

I am writing in relation to the following FOI requests which you currently
have lodged with TfL:

 

FOI-0210-1920 – received 17^th April 2019 – about body cameras worn by
some operational staff;

FOI-0242-1920 – received 23^rd April 2019 – about the recruitment of train
drivers;

FOI-0304-1920 – received 29^th April 2019 – about first aid courses for
station staff;

FOI-0321-1920 – received 29^th April 2019 – about the use of paper towels
in staff toilets, and;

FOI-0322-1920 – received 30^th April 2019 – about the “SAP” system used at
TfL.

 

Your requests have been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.  I can
confirm that we hold the information you require

 

The cases listed above represent five out of a total of twenty-three
requests that you have submitted to TfL this calendar year (the other
eighteen of which have already been answered). The twenty-three cases
submitted this year represent an average of more than 1.27 per week (in
the 18-week period from 1^st January 2019 to 30^th April 2019 - the date
of your last request).

 

The five cases listed above are being refused under section 14(1) of the
Freedom of Information Act, which provides an exemption to the disclosure
of information where a request is considered to be ‘vexatious’. In
reaching this conclusion we have drawn on guidance from the Information
Commissioner’s Office (ICO), both in relation to the specific application
of section 14 and in relation to FOI-handling more generally.

 

On the specific application of section 14(1) we have been steered by the
ICO guidance on the use of that exemption that can be found on its website
here: [1]https://ico.org.uk/media/1198/dealing-wi...

 

You will note that this guidance includes the following advice to public
authorities:

 

“Section 14(1) may be used in a variety of circumstances where a request,
or its impact on a public authority, cannot be justified. Whilst public
authorities should think carefully before refusing a request as vexatious
they should not regard section 14(1) as something which is only to be
applied in the most extreme circumstances”;

 

“Sometimes a request may be so patently unreasonable or objectionable that
it will obviously be vexatious….In cases where the issue is not clear-cut,
the key question to ask is whether the request is likely to cause a
disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or
distress…This will usually be a matter of objectively judging the evidence
of the impact on the authority and weighing this against any evidence
about the purpose and value of the request”;

 

“The public authority may take into account the context and history of the
request, where this is relevant”;

 

“The information Commissioner recognises that dealing with unreasonable
requests can place a strain on resources and get in the way of delivering
mainstream services or answering legitimate requests.”

 

“Section 14(1) is designed to protect public authorities by allowing them
to refuse any requests which have the potential to cause a
disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption, irritation or
distress”.

 

“…the concepts of ‘proportionality’ and ‘justification’ are central to any
consideration of whether a request is vexatious”;

 

The guidance includes some specific indicators to help public authorities
judge whether or not a case should be considered vexatious. This includes
the following:

 

“Burden on the authority: the effort required to meet the request will be
so grossly oppressive in terms of the strain on time and resources, that
the authority cannot reasonably be expected to comply, no matter how
legitimate the subject matter or valid the intentions of the requester”;

 

“Frequent or overlapping requests: the requester submits frequent
correspondence about the same issue or sends in new requests before the
public authority has had an opportunity to address their earlier
enquiries”.

 

“Disproportionate effort: the matter being pursued by the requester is
relatively trivial and the authority would have to extend a
disproportionate amount of resources in order to meet the request.”

 

Considering each of your requests in isolation it is unlilkely that we
would find that any of them would meet the criteria of being ‘vexatious’.
However, the guidance from the ICO makes it clear that public authorities
should take into account the ‘context and history’ in which a request is
made, and that this will “…often be a major factor in determining whether
the request is vexatious”. This part of the guidance goes on to say that:

 

“In practice this means taking account of:

 

-       Other requests made by the requester to that public authority
(whether complied or refused).

-       The number and subject matter of those requests”, and;

 

“A request which would not normally be regarded as vexatious in isolation
may assume that quality once considered in context. An example of this
would be where an individual is placing a significant strain on an
authority’s resources by submitting a long and frequent series of
requests, and the most recent request, although not obviously vexatious in
itself, is contributing to that aggregated burden”.

 

It is this ‘aggregated burden’ that is central to our decision to apply
the exemption set out in section 14(1) in response to your requests. Given
the sheer number of requests you have submitted this year (more than one a
week – and more than any other FOI applicant to TfL so far this year) we
believe the threshold for applying section 14(1) has been met. The
cumulative effect of these requests is that it ultimately provides a
sustained burden and disruption to our colleagues across the organisation
whose principal function is the running of transport services or the
support services required to make that happen. Your requests invariably
relate to matters that are clearly of a personal interest, but not
necessarily of wider public interest. This can mean that the information
is not centrally recorded and requires us to liaise with specialist staff
in the relevant business areas.

 

This requires the re-allocation and diversion of already limited resources
and places a burden on a small number of personnel. We also believe that
the purpose and value of your requests is not necessarily obvious, which
brings into question whether it is a justified and proportionate use of
our time to comply.

 

Please be assured that our application of the section 14 exemption does
not reflect a conclusion that it has been your deliberate intention to
place an undue burden on TfL, and we will consider any future request for
information on its merits and in accordance with the requirements of the
FOI Act and the expectations of the ICO. However, in making any future
request I would ask that you consider carefully what information is of
most importance to you, and to take into account the guidance and advice
provided by the ICO such as the “dos and don’ts” published on its website
here: [2]https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/off...

 

You will note that the table halfway down that page includes the following
advice to FOI applicants:

 

Do….“Give the authority ample opportunity to address any previous requests
you have made before submitting new ones”;

Don’t… “Submit frivolous or trivial requests; remember that processing any
information request involves some cost to the public purse”;

Don’t… “Disrupt a public authority by the sheer volume of information
requested. Whether you are acting alone or in concert with others, this is
a clear misuse of the Act and an abuse of your ‘right to know’”, and;

Don’t…”Deliberately ‘fish’ for information by submitting very broad or
random requests in the hope it will catch something noteworthy or
otherwise useful.”

 

We would therefore encourage you to prioritise any future requests around
the information that is of most importance to you to ensure that you are
able to make the best use of our resources under the FOI Act.

 

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to
appeal.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

 

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References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/media/1198/dealing-wi...
2. https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/off...
3. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/

Dear FOI,

I apologise for creating too many requests in a short period of time - a lot more than I had thought. It was never my intention to be vexatious or create an unnecessary burder on TfL.

I have allowed what I believe to be sufficient time to elapse for this specific request, and am still interested in finding out this information. I am aware you may have to treat this as a new request.

Are you able to reconsider providing this information please?

Yours sincerely,

Lewis Western

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Western

 

Thank you for your email.

 

The email trail above refers to the five requests which were refused. You
are now asking for us to reconsider dealing with this specific request.

 

We will happily consider any future requests you wish to submit, however
it is not clear which specific request you are now referring to. We assume
that you are referring to the request made regarding SAP - however, to
ensure we have assumed correctly we would be grateful if you could
resubmit your request in full.

 

As any request received will be treated as a new request, it would be
clearer if you could submit this by starting a new request on What Do They
Know.

 

If you have any queries please let me know. We will not take any further
action until we hear from you.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Graham Hurt

 

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

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References

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

Lewis Western left an annotation ()

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c...

New request on alternative account since WDTK, very fustratingly, won't delete this request for me to resubmit it.