Dear Mr Ortoise

TfL Ref: FOI-0814-1516

Thank you for your email] received by Transport for London (TfL) on 5
August 2015 asking for information about costs in relation to tube strikes

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 3 September 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
do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Lee Hill

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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References

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1. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transpar...
2. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/

Dear Mr Ortoise

Under section 8(1)(b) of the Act a request must state the name of the
applicant and an address for correspondence. In this case you have used a
name which we have strong reason to believe is a pseudonym.

According to guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office, which is
the public body which oversees the operation of FOI, a public authority is
entitled to refuse a request where the real name of the applicant has not
been used.

Since your request does not satisfy the definition of a request for
information contained in section 8(1)(b) of the Act, we do not consider
that the right to information contained in section 1 is engaged. The ICO
guidance does state that as a matter of good practice public authorities
should still consider such requests for information, such as where the
identity of the applicant is irrelevant and there is no problem in
releasing the information. However, in this case there is a possibility
that some of the information you are seeking may be subject to one or more
of the exemptions contained in the Act.

I appreciate that this may appear to be a minor point and an
inconvenience, but I should inform you that the ICO has advised that, by
virtue of section 50 of the FOI Act, they are unable to consider
pseudonymous requests for information. In the event that TfL goes on to
process this request and withholds any information, you would therefore
not be able to exercise the statutory rights to challenge this decision. I
would emphasise that this does not represent a blanket refusal to release
information on this subject, just that we must receive your particular
request in a valid form before we can go on to process it fully.

If you are able to provide proof of your identification we would be happy
to continue processing your request.

Yours sincerely

Lee Hill

FOI Case Officer

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