Major Incident Investigations: Lessons Learned Reports for 2016 and 2017 YTD

The request was partially successful.

Dear Transport for London,

Section 5 of a 30 June 2016 paper entitled "Bus Safety Programme" presented to TfL's Safety, Sustainability and Human Resources Panel mentions TfL's intention to publish a monthly "Major Incident Investigation: Lessons Learned" Report for distribution by TfL to its contracted Bus Operators. Kindly provide me with a copy of each available monthly "Major Incident Investigation: Lessons Learned" Report issued by TfL from July 2016 through September 2017.

Yours faithfully,

Tom Kearney

FOI, Transport for London

Dear Mr Kearney

 

Our Ref:         FOI-1967-1718

 

Thank you for your request received on 18 October 2017 asking for
information about the "Major Incident Investigation: Lessons Learned"
Reports.

 

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

 

Your request will be processed by TfL, the Greater London Authority and
its subsidiaries to provide you with a response in accordance with the
Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.

 

A response will be sent to you by 15 November 2017. 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

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

[3][TfL request email]

 

 

 

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Dear FOI Transport for London,

I have requested that TfL kindly provide me with a copy of each available monthly "Major Incident Investigations: Lessons Learned" Report for 2016 and 2017.

By law, TfL should have responded to my request by 15 November 2017.

Yours sincerely,

Tom Kearney

FOI, Transport for London

8 Attachments

Dear Mr Kearney

 

Our Ref:          FOI-1967-1718

 

Thank you for your request received on 18 October 2017 asking for
information about the "Major Incident Investigation: Lessons Learned"
Reports. I apologise for the delay in my response.

 

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 do hold the information you require.

 

The report production is based on two factors: conclusion of
investigations and TfL’s review of findings, lessons and actions before
closing the incidents. Only then is the report prepared for release to all
bus operators. This means that, on occasions, there are some time periods
when the report is not produced.

 

Please find attached the reports for quarters two, three, and four of
2015/16 and July, September, and October 2017. Please note that we have
only provided the summary data contained in the first few pages of each
report (for reasons explained below). Please also note that reports were
circulated in quarters one, two, three, and four of 2016/17 and in June
2017, but did not include any summary data.

 

In accordance with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply the later
descriptive data contained in the reports as this information is subject
to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under
sections 41 - Information Provided in Confidence, 40(2) – Personal Data,
and 38 – Health and Safety. We are aware that you appear to have received
some of this information in un-redacted form, via unauthorised means.
However, this unauthorised disclosure does not alter our view that the
exemptions used have been correctly applied.

 

Section 41 and Section 38

 

TfL’s top priority is ensuring the safety of the general public when
traveling on our network. To be able to ensure all safety-related concerns
are being identified and addressed, TfL needs to obtain information from
the bus operators quickly and with as much detail as possible. In order to
obtain what is needed, TfL has to be able to offer a ‘safe space’ to
facilitate this sharing of vital information so that operators are not
deterred from sharing full, frank and honest information as soon as
possible. It is for this reason that the information is provided to us in
confidence by the bus operators, engaging section 41 of the FOI Act.
Disclosing descriptive information, which is shared in confidence and
circulated to a specified audience with the intention of quickly
identifying opportunities to improve safety outcomes, could potentially
damage TfL’s relationships with individual operators and impact on the
important information shared as part of this relationship, affecting TfL’s
ability to oversee the safety of the travelling public. Disclosure would
therefore be likely to prejudice the health and safety of our passengers,
engaging section 38(1). Section 41 is an absolute exemption and not
subject to a public interest test.

 

Section 38 of the FOI Act requires consideration of the public interest
test. Whilst TfL recognises that there is a public interest in disclosure
of this information, especially for affected parties to exercise their
legal rights, there are already existing processes by which an injured
party can bring a claim and determine liability for an accident.

 

We also recognise that there is a public interest in disclosure which
would allow people to take steps to ensure their own safety. However, we
consider that the public interest is better served by TfL being able to
obtaining full and frank safety information as outlined above. If the
operators thought this confidential information would go into the public
domain, they may be reluctant to share as much information, which would
prevent us from fulfilling our safety and security functions and undermine
TfL’s and bus operators’ ability to take steps to improve safety. Another
potential consequence of not receiving full details is that we would not
be able to share risks with other operators. Therefore, the public
interest in disclosure is outweighed by the interest in engaging these
exemptions.

 

Section 40(2)

 

This exemption has been engaged as sections of the report contain
sensitive personal data relating to drivers and, in some instances, third
parties, who may be identifiable in certain circumstances. In accordance
with TfL’s obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) this
personal data has been withheld. This is because disclosure of this
personal data would be a breach of the DPA, specifically the first
principle of the DPA which requires all processing of personal data to be
fair and lawful.

 

Please note that whilst we have applied an exemption to some of the
information contained in the reports, we do publish high level details of
incident causes on our website, in line with our commitment to
transparency:

 

[1]https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publication...

 

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

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

 

[2][TfL request email]

 

 

 

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