Dear Lewis Samuel

TfL Ref: 1488-2324

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7
August 2023 asking for information about the Jubilee line PED
announcements.

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 September 2023. 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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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Dear Lewis Samuel

TfL ref 1488-324

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7 August 2023 asking for information about our announcements.

In order to provide you with access to our audio recordings we require a direct email address in order to create the necessary permissions. Could you please email us directly with your email address, citing your FOI reference number, and we can then grant access.

You may find our direct email address at the following link: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparenc...

In the meantime, if you would like to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Sara Thomas
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

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Dear Lewis Samuel

TfL ref 1488-324

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 7
August 2023 and for confirming your personal email address on 19 August
2023, asking for information about our announcements.

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

You have received an email separately that provides a link to the
requested audio announcements. Please note that all of the audio
announcements across the full TfL network that we are currently able to
provide access to are accessible via this site. However, please be aware
that many of the audio announcements that can be heard across the network
are actually made up of smaller, fragmented recordings which are then
combined for the purposes of public announcements so there will be some
instances where full recordings of specific stop/station names, numbers or
locations are not held.

Please also be aware that we are unable to provide full access to audio
announcements across the London Underground network because of contractual
prohibitions on disclosure which means these are exempt from disclosure in
accordance with section 43(2) of the FOI Act. We do not consider it in the
public interest to breach these contractual obligations for the purposes
of disclosure given that there is limited wider public interest in this
material to support that. Those that we are able to provide can be found
at the link provided.

Additionally, DLR audio announcement files are not held. These are done
digitally as needed by typing them into a system, combining previously
typed announcements where necessary.

We are currently updating these files and so any newer recordings will
shortly be uploaded as part of this pre-determined schedule, rather than
in response to specific future FOI requests. This is to ensure our
resources can be managed effectively. Therefore, if you are aware of newer
recordings that have been created that are not yet uploaded, we would
appreciate your patience with this as requests for these recordings will
be refused under section 22 of the FOI Act on the basis that there is a
pre-existing intention to publish these in accordance with our publication
schedule. We would therefore encourage you to wait for this upload rather
than submit requests for recordings in this way. To confirm, these updates
are expected to occur around January and July of each year.

Please note that unfortunately, at the moment the ShareFile site which
hosts these recordings is suffering from a technical glitch which has
meant that some non-Microsoft accounts (such as Gmail) are not being able
to access them. We are currently working on this with a view to resolving
it as quickly as possible but if you would like immediate access it would
require you to create a Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail etc) and we
can add you to the permissions list via that account where you will then
be able to access the announcements as usual.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable
to access it for some 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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

TfL RESTRICTED

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Dear Lewis Samuel,

TfL Ref: FOI-2022-2324

Thank you for your follow up request received by Transport for London
(TfL) on 7 September 2023 asking for access to announcements.

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 October 2023. 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... 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,

Mary Abidakun

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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Dear Lewis Samuel,

TfL Ref: FOI-2022-2324

Thank you for your follow up request received by Transport for London
(TfL) on 7 September 2023 asking for access to announcements.

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

However, as previously explained, please note that all of the audio
announcement files across the full TfL network that we are currently able
to provide access to are accessible via a link to a site, previously
provided to you, which holds the audio announcements.

Please also be aware that we are unable to provide full access to audio
announcements across the London Underground network because of contractual
prohibitions on disclosure which means these are exempt from disclosure in
accordance with section 43(2) of the FOI Act. We do not consider it in the
public interest to breach these contractual obligations for the purposes
of disclosure given that there is limited wider public interest in the
material you have requested to support that. Those that we are able to
provide can be found at the link you will have previously received via a
separate email.

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

Yours sincerely,

Mary Abidakun

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

show quoted sections

TfL Ref: IRV-117-2324

Thank you for your email which was received by Transport for London (TfL) on 5 October 2023

You have expressed that you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

A review will be conducted by an internal review panel in accordance with TfL’s Internal Review Procedure, which is available via the following URL:
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparenc...

Every effort will be made to provide you with a response by 1 November 2023. 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 contact me.

Emma Flint
Principal Information Access Adviser
FOI Case Management Team
Transport for London

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Dear Lewis Samuel

I am contacting you with regards to your email 5 October 2023. Following
your email a review has been carried out by an Independent Review Panel
(‘the panel’) consisting of individuals who were not involved in the
handling of your request (FOI-2022-2223).

To confirm, your original FOI request of 7 August (FOI-1488-2324) asked
for – I would like to request the audio recording for the Jubilee Line
Extension platform edge doors, when they close but are blocked.  For
clarity, when the doors close but are blocked, an automatic announcement
plays on the platform that says "Stand clear, mind the doors" or words
very close to that effect. The announcement is rarely heard and would only
apply if the train operator did not reopen the doors before the
announcement started playing.

Following a response to your request on the 7 September  you emailed the
following (FOI-2022-2324) - Thank you for your reply, although the
specific announcement I am requesting is quite unique, and is rarely heard
by passengers or staff as the circumstances to trigger the automatic
announcement are rare. It appears it has never been requested before and
as the Jubilee line Platform Edge Doors have been there since the
extension, the announcement is unlikely to come out in your twice yearly
announcement updates.

Following a further response, your subsequent email of 5 October stated -
Your answer contradicts yourself. I asked for a very specific
announcement, and you reply with:

"I can confirm that we do hold the information you require." " all of the
audio announcement files across the full TfL network that we are currently
able to provide access to are accessible via a link to a site, previously
provided to you, which holds the audio announcements."

Yet the announcement I requested is not there, so you do not hold the
information I require, yet you say you do. The announcement I requested is
a special one, rarely heard, that I cannot see anyone has requested
previously. Your blanket response of "all announcements are on the site"
feels like an excuse and you are not adequately checking to see if you
hold this data separately or can obtain it from the manufacturer of the
platform edge doors.

You clearly DO hold the announcement as it plays through the speakers. A
sound file exists somewhere. If there is a copyright agreement then that
is different.

The panel have reviewed the information held in relation to your requests
and agree that the responses provided to you could have been clearer and
understand how confusion was caused with regards to the particular
announcement you seek. Please accept our apologies.

The panel have liaised with TfL’s LU Comms Manager and the Senior Engineer
for Transport Control & Information Systems concerning the announcement
you have described and we can advise that there is an announcement that
plays when the PED’s are blocked three consecutive times. This occurs when
the doors are obstructed (they back off and then attempt to close again).
After the third time there is an automatic announcement saying “stand
clear of the doors please”, which is repeated until the obstruction is
cleared and the doors can close. 

However these announcements are the property of Knorr Bremse and have been
produced under a legal licencing agreement allowing for the broadcast on
London Underground. Due to the licencing conditions under which this
particular announcement falls, disclosure in this instance has been exempt
in accordance with s43(2) of the FOIA (commercial interests) based on the
balance of probabilities that disclosure would be likely to lead to some
form of legal action being bought against TfL. Whilst the panel make no
suggestion that you would use this information for anything other than
your own personal interest, disclosure of this information to you has to
be regarded as a disclosure to ‘the public at large’ which elevates the
risk of legal action being bought against TfL if this information were to
be widely used by members of the public for their own financial gain. As
you may know, the majority of the London Underground audio announcements
do have prohibitions against disclosure due to the issue of copyright
infringement and the resulting legal actions.

If legal action were to be bought against TfL for the public disclosure
and use of these announcements, the financial costs of legal resources
required to deal with legal cases can be significant. In addition to these
legal costs there is also the imposed cost of any potential compensation
that would need to be paid to a third party service provider if a court
case was ruled in their favour.

Where qualified exemptions are cited, there is an obligation on the public
authority to carry out a consideration of the public interest test. In
this instance the panel gave consideration to whether the information
being requested was of sufficient enough value to the wider public to
mitigate the costs to the public purse that any potential legal action
would incur. However the Panel agreed that this announcement would only be
of value to a minimal amount of transport enthusiasts and therefore the
consideration for disclosure was outweigh by the impact on public funds
that would be required to provide legal resources if legal action was
bought against TfL.

The Panel appreciate that the above response will come as a disappointment
to you, however we hope the above response has provided a better clarity
in regards to the considerations given to the information requested. If
you are dissatisfied with the internal review actions to date please do
not hesitate to contact me or alternately 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 also available on the ICO’s website
([1]www.ico.org.uk).

Yours sincerely

Emma Flint

Principal Information Access Adviser

FOI Case Management Team

Transport for London

[2][TfL request email]

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