Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-0401-1920

Thank you for your request received on 7 May 2019 asking for a copy of
communication between the Director of HSE and MD Surface Transport.

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 5 June 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

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[3][TfL request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-0401-1920

Thank you for your request received on 7 May 2019 asking for a copy of
communication between the Director of HSE and MD Surface Transport.

Your request is being considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I
can confirm we do hold the information you require.

However, in accordance with Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act
we are still considering the balance of the public interest in relation to
a qualified exemption that applies to the requested information and have
not yet reached a conclusion. The exemption under consideration is section
42 – legal privilege. It is estimated that a decision will be reached by 3
July 2019 and I will write again to inform you of that decision.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[1][TfL request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-0401-1920

Thank you once again for your request received on 7 May 2019 asking for a
copy of communication between the Director of HSE and MD Surface
Transport.

We are still considering the balance of the public interest in relation to
a qualified exemption that applies to the requested information and have
not yet reached a conclusion. I apologise for this delay and any
inconvenience caused. We expect to be able to provide a response in the
next few weeks.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[1][TfL request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-0401-1920

Thank you for your request received on 7 May 2019 asking for a copy of
communications between the Director of Health, Safety & Environment (HSE)
and MD Surface Transport on the subject of the tram overturning at
Sandilands in November 2016. I apologise for the delay in my response.

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

Please find attached correspondence between Jill Collis, Director of HSE,
and Leon Daniels, who was MD Surface Transport until December 2017.

In accordance with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply some of the
information as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of
access to information under sections 42 and 44(1)(a) . In this instance
section 42 has been applied as some of the information you have requested
relates directly to the seeking, provision, and result of legal advice.
Section 44(1)(a) has been applied as some information is prohibited from
disclosure under another enactment, in this case Reg 10(3) of the Railways
(Accident Investigation and Reporting) Regulations 2005.

Section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act exempts legally privileged
information, including legal advice, from disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act. There is a very strong element of public interest inbuilt
into the concept of Legal Professional Privilege and this has long been
recognised, by the Information Commissioner, the Information Tribunal and
the courts, and it reflects the importance of legal advice being sought,
and given, in confidence as a fundamental condition on which the
administration of justice rests. There is an inherent public interest in
TfL being able to obtain full and frank legal advice, and this is
consistent with TfL’s responsibility to analyse and address legal risks
and issues.

The RAIB’s (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) response to TfL’s comments
on the first interim report was part of the review of a working document
of the RAIB, these documents are protected from disclosure under Reg
10(3)(e) of the Railways (Accident Investigation and Reporting)
Regulations 2005:

(3) Except by order of a relevant court and subject to paragraph (7), the
Branch shall not be required to disclose to anyone -

(e) working documents of the Branch.

We, and the RAIB, believe that the RAIB’s comments fit this description
and is therefore exempt in accordance with section 44(1)(a) of the FOI
Act. As section 44 is an absolute exemption we have not gone on to
consider the public interest test.

In accordance with our obligations under Data Protection legislation some
information has been withheld from the attached correspondence, as
required by section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of
this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the
first principle of Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation
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 which would make the processing ‘fair’.

This exemption to the right of access to information is an absolute
exemption and not subject to an assessment of whether the public interest
favours use of the exemption.

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.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[1][TfL request email]

show quoted sections