Emergency Lighting -Londonundeground

The request was partially successful.

Dear London underground Transport for London,
Mr Name is Dr Arunthavachelvi Santhiramoulesan
1. Are London underground Station Supervisors duty-bound to check emergency lighting?
2. How often should station supervisors check emergency lighting?
3. Is emergency lighting part of weekly emergency equipment checks?
4. Who carries out the weekly emergency equipment check?
5. How often should station supervisors check first aid equipment?
6. Is emergency first aid equipment part of the weekly emergency equipment check?
8. What is PGI and who is responsible to carryout this?
9. How often are PGI checks carried out?
10. Is emergency lighting check part of PGI?
11. How often do electrical engineering contractors check emergency lighting?
12. Please provide copies of PGIs carried out from January 2017 to June 2017.
13. When was the last emergency light failure reported at Earls Court station before 6th August 2016? When was this repaired?
15. What is the procedure in place if there is emergency lighting failure at Earl’s Court station? Please provide a copy of the rule.
16. Is it a criminal offence under railway regulations to falsely record emergency lighting checks ? Please provide the relevant laws.

Yours faithfully,
Chelvi

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Dr Santhiramoulesan,

 

TfL Ref: FOI-3335-1819

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 6^th
March 2019 asking for information about emergency lighting and equipment
on the Underground.

 

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 4^th April 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

 

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Dr Santhiramoulesan,

 

TfL Ref: FOI-3335-1819

 

Thank you for your email of 6^th March 2019 asking for information about
emergency lighting on the London Underground.

 

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of
the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. Note
that the Freedom of Information Act relates to recorded information only,
and we are only obliged to answer in relation to recorded information held
by TfL. We do not believe that all of your questions are requests for
information under the terms Act. That said, we have answered them all as
best we can within the time allowed for responding to FOI requests (twenty
working days). I have separated the response below into those questions we
believe fall under FOI (questions 12 and 15) and those that do not (the
remainder).

 

FOI requests:

 

Question 12. Please provide copies of PGIs (Planned General Inspections)
carried out from January 2017 to June 2017.

 

Answer: Please can you clarify exactly what PGIs you require? Is this in
relation to a specific station, for the entire Underground, or something
else? Note that I cannot, at this stage, confirm what information is held
nor whether it will be released. If we hear nothing further from you by
23^rd April 2019 this element of your request will be considered closed
and any subsequent response will be treated as a new request.

 

Question 15. What is the procedure in place if there is emergency lighting
failure at Earl’s Court station? Please provide a copy of the rule.

Answer: We are not obliged to provide you with the procedures for dealing
with emergency light failures as it is subject to a statutory exemption to
the right of access to information, under Section 38(1)(b) of the FOI Act
– the part of the Act that relates to Health and Safety. In this instance
the exemption has been applied as disclosure of the information would be
likely to adversely affect the safety and security of TfL employees and
the travelling public. Whilst we make no suggestion that you would use
this information for anything other than you own interest, disclosure of
information under FOI has to be regarded as a disclosure to ‘the public at
large’. The information you seek details how London Underground responds
to operational incidents and emergencies, and how it operates the railway
more generally. It would not be appropriate for this information to be in
the public domain, which could then be used to cause incidents or
disruption to the network. The use of this exemption is subject to an
assessment of the public interest in relation to the disclosure of the
information concerned. We recognise the need for openness and transparency
by public authorities, but in this instance we believe that the public
interest in applying the exemption, in order to minimise risk to
operational resilience and the welfare of staff and the public, outweighs
the public interest in disclosure.

Non-FOI requests:

 

Question 1. Are London underground Station Supervisors duty-bound to check
emergency lighting?

Answer: Station supervisors (now called ‘Customer Service Managers’) are
not duty bound to test emergency lighting. Electrical maintenance
contractors test the emergency lighting.

 

Question 2. How often should station supervisors check emergency lighting?

Answer: Station staff do not test emergency lighting of the station. The
emergency lighting is checked by the maintenance contractors monthly.

 

Question 3. Is emergency lighting part of weekly emergency equipment
checks?

Answer: No.

 

Question 4. Who carries out the weekly emergency equipment check?

Answer: Station staff check emergency equipment on a daily or weekly
basis, depending on the equipment in question.

 

Question 5. How often should station supervisors check first aid
equipment?

Answer: First aid equipment is part of the station daily checks. Staff
check that the boxes are in place and sealed. If they need to open them or
the seal is broken, then they check the stock and replenish the supplies
as required then reseal the box.

 

Question 6. Is emergency first aid equipment part of the weekly emergency
equipment check?

Answer: No, it is checked daily as referenced above.

 

Question 8. What is PGI and who is responsible to carry out this?

Answer: PGI stands for a “Planned General Inspection”. This is a
risk-based system carried out by front line staff and managers to check
their workplace for hazards, substandard conditions and practices, and to
record findings, report issues and enable them to be rectified.

 

Question 9. How often are PGI checks carried out?

Answer: They are risk-based and depend on the activities undertaken,
workplace and location. For stations this could be monthly or 3 monthly
depending on the regime and location.

 

Question 10. Is emergency lighting check part of PGI?

Answer: Yes, but the frequency depends on the local plan.

 

Question 11. How often do electrical engineering contractors check
emergency lighting?

Answer: The requirement for emergency lighting inspection is monthly, with
an annual full drain-down of batteries.

 

Question 13. When was the last emergency light failure reported at Earls
Court station before 6th August 2016? When was this repaired?

Answer: We have no record of any failures prior to 6^th August 2016. That
is not to say that there were no such failures – rather, a search for the
period 1^st April 2014 to 5^th April 2016 did not yield any positive
results.

 

Question 16. Is it a criminal offence under railway regulations to falsely
record emergency lighting checks? Please provide the relevant laws.

Answer: I have been unable to find a definitive answer to this question in
the time available.

 

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

 

David Wells

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

 

 

show quoted sections