Station Announcements

Dear Seb Humble,

TfL Ref: FOI-4279-2324

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 17
February 2024 asking for access to announcements.

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

A response will be sent to you by 15 March 2024. 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 Seb Humble,

TfL Ref: FOI-4279-2324

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 17
February 2024 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 hold the information you require.

However, we are not obliged to supply the station announcements you have
requested as this information is subject to a statutory exemption to the
right of access to information under section 43(2) of the FOI Act –
commercial interests. In this instance section 43(2) has been applied as
disclosure of the information requested would be likely to prejudice the
commercial interests of TfL and/or the company used to provide the
recordings.

In this instance section 43(2) has been applied as disclosure of the
information requested would be likely to prejudice the commercial
interests of TfL and/or the company used to provide the recordings. The
recordings in question were provided to London Underground under a signed
contracts which contained explicit conditions concerning disclosure and
distribution.
 
These contracts specify that the recordings are solely to be used for the
purpose for which they were created and for broadcast on the London
Underground network only. If TfL were to disclose these recordings in
response to an FOI request, it would constitute an actionable breach of
contract and would be likely to result in a valid legal claim against
London Underground or the license to use the recordings being withdrawn,
which would impose additional, unnecessary, costs. TfL wishes to protect
its commercial interests and ability to participate in future commercial
activity. The disclosure of this information would be to the detriment of
present and future business activities for both parties.
 
The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public
interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned.
TfL recognises the need for openness and transparency within public
authorities and the degree of public interest concerning London transport
announcements. However, in this instance this is outweighed by the damage
that would be done to TfL’s ability to use these recordings and any future
contractual negotiations that may take place regarding the London
Underground announcements.

If you would like access to the audio announcements that we are currently
able to provide access to across the full TfL network, please do let us
know by submitting a new request.  

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

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TfL Ref: IRV-248-2324

Thank you for your email which was received by Transport for London (TfL) on 22 March 2024.

You have expressed that you are dissatisfied with the handling of part 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 22 April 2024. 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 Seb Humble

I am contacting you regarding your request for an internal review
concerning the response provided to FOI-4279-2324. Following your email of
22 March 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 requests. Please accept my apologies for the delay in
responding.

To confirm, your original FOI request of 17 February asked for – I would
like to request the station announcements voiced by Elinor Hamilton. I am
requesting these on the basis this information has been given to "UK
Departure Boards" for use on their announcement add on packs.

Following a response to your request, you subsequent email of 22 March
stated the following - I dispute all the exemptions used. First of all you
have released the Elinor Announcements for the Northern line so there is
no valid exemption used here. Recently the Phil Sayer station
announcements have been released which are owned by the same company
(Sayer Hamilton) and they have no problem.

The panel have reviewed the information held in relation to your requests
and agree that the response 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 would first like to address you statement that these
announcements have been disclosed to ‘UK Departure Boards’. This statement
is incorrect as the panel have confirmed this with the relevant subject
matter experts to be the case. Elinor Hamilton announcements have not been
disclosed to UK Departure Boards company by TfL. This company has entered
into a separate agreement directly with Elinor Hamilton and the recordings
they use are bespoke, they are not the same audio we use in stations.

Additionally the Northern line train announcements voiced by Elinor
Hamilton were originally recorded and uploaded to the trains directly by
Alstom, not TfL. These recordings were sourced under contract directly
between Alstom and Elinor Hamilton, not TfL. Therefore legally we are
unable to include them on our SharePoint site with other announcements.  

Regarding the announcements we use in stations, these will have been
produced under a legal licencing agreement with Elinor Hamilton, allowing
for these bespoke services to be broadcast at London Underground stations.
Due to the licencing conditions under which these announcements will
likely fall, 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 if they were made available for
public use. 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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