Income and revenue data

The request was partially successful.

Dear Transport for London,

Could you provide the following information regarding accounting information and income for the council:

1. The total revenue received for the year ending December 2014 (or the last financial year) for:

Underground penalty fines
London bus fines
Parking Fines
Congestion charge fines

2. The number of individuals/persons that made payments to the council for the year ending December 2014 (or the last financial year) for:

Underground penalty fines
London bus fines
Parking Fines
Congestion charge fines

3. The name of the bank with the bank account number and sort code that is used for the payments for:

Underground penalty fines
London bus fines
Parking Fines
Congestion charge fines

4. If different banks and/or account numbers and sort codes are used for each of the above please provide those details for each one

Yours faithfully,

Sandra Cross

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Ms Cross

 

Our Ref:         FOI-1976-1415

 

Thank you for your e-mail received on 4 March 2015 asking for information
about London Underground and bus penalty fares, and parking and Congestion
Charge penalty charge notices (PCNs).

 

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

 

A response will be provided to you by 2 April 2015. 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
feel free to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Gemma Jacob

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

[2][TfL request email]

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI, Transport for London

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Cross

 

Our Ref:         FOI-1976-1415

 

Thank you for your e-mail received on 4 March 2015 asking for information
about London Underground and bus penalty fares, and parking and Congestion
Charge penalty charge notices (PCNs).

 

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 hold some of the information you require.

 

Please see the table below for the number of penalty fare notices (PFNs)
issued and income from these on London buses and London Underground for
the 2013/14 financial year.

 

Total PFNs/PCNs Total Income
Buses 35,896 £760,147.67
London Underground 18043 442,000

 

The information for income on parking penalty charge notices (PCNs) is
available on our website:

 

[1]http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publicat...

 

The total revenue generated from gross enforcement of the Congestion
Charge, for the financial year 2013/14, was £83.6m. Unfortunately we do
not record the number of individuals who have paid PCNs, for parking
related infringements or for the Congestion Charge, only the number of
PCNs that have been paid.

 

The collection of London Underground PFNs has been outsourced to a private
limited company not subject to the FOI Act and is remitted to the TfL Bus
Enforcement account number given above at regular intervals. Monies paid
into London Underground stations is also periodically transferred to this
account internally.

 

With regards to the bank account details you have requested, in accordance
with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply this information as it is
subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information
under section 31(1)(a) which exempts from disclosure information which
would, or would be likely to prejudice the prevention and detection of
crime.

 

Disclosure under FOI is a disclosure ‘to the world at large’.  The bank
account details you have requested could be used by an individual with
malicious intent to access TfL accounts using illegal methods for their
own purposes and gain, causing disruption to TfL’s ability to enforce 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 feel that balance lies in favour of withholding the
information to ensure the security of TfL’s accounts.

 

If this is not the information you are looking for please feel free to
contact me.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely

 

Gemma Jacob

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

[2][TfL request email]

 

 

show quoted sections

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 'Income and revenue data'.

I have received some of the information requested however in regards to bank details I have been told "

we are not obliged to supply this information as it is
subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information
under section 31(1)(a) which exempts from disclosure information which
would, or would be likely to prejudice the prevention and detection of
crime"

Please could you let me know how someone is able to perform criminal activities with simply having a bank account and sort code. If that were the case then every local authority in the UK would be subject to this crime they do publish these details for council tax, business rates and parking fines on their own websites. In fact every person in the UK could be subject to this 'crime' if that were the case.

I assume there are accounts for different income types and again I request the account details as before as I am not satisfied with the response.

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

Yours faithfully,

Sandra Cross

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Ms Cross

 

Request for Internal Review

 

Our ref: IRV-008-1516

 

Thank you for your request for an internal review which was received by
Transport for London (TfL) on 27 April 2015.

 

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 is available via the following
URL:

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

 

Every effort will be made to provide you with a response by 23 June 2015.
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.

 

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

[2][TfL request email]  

 

 

show quoted sections

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Ms Cross

 

Our Ref:         IRV-008-1516

 

I am contacting you regarding the internal review of your request for
information concerning the bank account numbers and sort codes used for
payments of penalty fares and fines.

 

This review has been carried out following your e-mail of 27 April 2015
regarding the response to your request for information under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act. The review was carried out by an independent
Review Panel (‘the Panel’) consisting of individuals who were not involved
in the handling of your request.

 

Your initial request for information asked for the name of the bank with
the bank account number and sort code that is used for the payments for
London Underground penalty fares, London bus penalty fares, and Congestion
Charge and parking penalty charge notices (PCNs). A response was provided
to you on 2 April 2015.

 

The Panel have reviewed the initial correspondence from your original
query and have concluded that section 31(1)(a) does apply.

 

Please see the following definition of mandate fraud which is the specific
crime we have identified:

 

DEFINITION – LEGAL: FRAUD BY FALSE REPRESENTATION

FRAUD ACT 2006 SEC 2

“…. Dishonestly makes a false representation, and intends, by making the
representation to make a gain for himself or another, or to cause loss to
another or to expose another to risk of loss. “

DEFINITION - MANDATE FRAUD

“Mandate fraud is where fraudsters obtain details of direct debits,
standing orders or account transfer details and amend them to transfer
monies to other accounts”

 

According to reports the incidents of mandate fraud are increasing and we
believe that release of this information could result in TfL being exposed
to possible mandate fraud:

 

[1]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24085...

[2]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment...

 

We have carried out a basic internet search and the account numbers are
not already in the public domain. Payment of penalty fares are
administered by the Independent Revenue Collection and Support (IRCAS)
website and there is an established process for these payments, as well as
for paying Congestion Charge and parking PCNs.

 

The Panel has not upheld your appeal because we believe the exemption was
correctly applied. Even low impact crime would be sufficient to require
the application of the exemption. We have considered the public interest
and we are unable to identify any overriding public interest in disclosure
of the information, or in fact determine any practical use if the
information were to be provided.

                                                                                                          

I hope this information is of assistance. If you are dissatisfied with the
outcome of this internal review, 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 available on the ICO’s website
([3]https://ico.org.uk/).

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Simon Guild

Information Access Manager

Transport for London

[4][TfL request email]

 

 

show quoted sections