Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-2154-1920

Thank you for your request received on 18 October 2019 asking for a copy
of the Transport for London representations mentioned in the email of 9
February 2017 from TfL to the RAIB.

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 15 November 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

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[3][TfL request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-2154-1920

Thank you for your request received on 18 October 2019 asking for a copy
of the Transport for London representations mentioned in the email of 9
February 2017 from TfL to the RAIB.

Your request is being 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.

However, in accordance with Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act
we are still considering the balance of the public interest in relation to
a qualified exemption that applies to the requested information and have
not yet reached a conclusion. The exemption under consideration is section
31 – law enforcement. It is estimated that a decision will be reached by
16 December 2019 and I will write again to inform you of that decision.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[1][TfL request email]

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Kearney

Our Ref:         FOI-2154-1920

Thank you for your request received on 18 October 2019 asking for a copy
of the Transport for London representations mentioned in the email of 9
February 2017 from TfL to the RAIB.

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

In accordance with the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply the requested
information as it is subject to statutory exemptions to the right of
access to information under sections 31(1)(g) and 44(1)(a).

The exemption at section 31(1)(g) relates to information whose disclosure
would be likely to prejudice the exercise by any public authority of its
functions for any of the purposes listed in subsection 31(2) of the FOI
Act. In this instance, the relevant purposes would be 31(2)(c) ‘the
purpose of ascertaining whether circumstances which would justify
regulatory action in pursuance of any enactment exist or may arise’; 2(e),
‘the purpose of ascertaining the cause of an accident’; 2(i) ‘the purpose
of securing the health, safety and welfare of persons at work’ and 2(j)
‘the purpose of protecting persons other than persons at work against risk
to health or safety arising out of or in connection with the actions of
persons at work’. The requested information was created and held for the
purposes of the RAIB’s (Rail Accident Investigation Branch)
investigations.

The use of these 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 consider that there is greater public interest in
withholding the information to ensure no prejudice is caused to the
investigations and any proceedings that may arise from them.

Section 44(1)(a) has also been applied as the requested information is
prohibited from disclosure under another enactment, in this case Section
13(5) of the Railways (Accident Investigation and Reporting) Regulations
2005.

TfL’s representations to the RAIB on a draft of their report formed part
of their investigation. Section 13(5) states, ‘A person to whom a report
or part of a report has been supplied under paragraph (1) shall not
disclose its contents without the permission of the Branch.’ The RAIB have
advised that they would not give permission for disclosure and would refer
to Section 10(1) of the same regulations which states that ‘the Branch…may
publish or make available for inspection any evidence or information it
may acquire during the course of an investigation where such disclosure
would not obstruct it in its general aims contained in section 4 of the
2003 Act…’

As section 44 is an absolute exemption we have not gone on to consider the
public interest test.

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

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob

Senior FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

[1][TfL request email]

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