TfL estiamtes they are spending approximately £1.1m to answer the
circa 2,500 FOI requests they receive per year.

Funds better spent elsewhere?

I believe the FOI mechanism is important.

--
jhk

In message , at 10:02:49 on
Mon, 21 Dec 2015, Jarle Hammen Knudsen remarked:
TfL estiamtes they are spending approximately £1.1m to answer the
circa 2,500 FOI requests they receive per year.

Funds better spent elsewhere?

I believe the FOI mechanism is important.

Perhaps they should analyse the topics being asked about and publish
more material proactively, thus reducing the load on their FOI team.

That's actually one of the objectives of the FOI mechanism.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 14:16:51 on
Mon, 21 Dec 2015, Paul Corfield remarked:

TfL estiamtes they are spending approximately £1.1m to answer the
circa 2,500 FOI requests they receive per year.

Funds better spent elsewhere?

I believe the FOI mechanism is important.

Perhaps they should analyse the topics being asked about and publish
more material proactively, thus reducing the load on their FOI team.

Which is precisely what they do. It's why Tube Working timetables are
on line. It also why TfL have just published the working timetables
for every TfL contracted bus service - this is a recent introduction.

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publica.../bus-schedules

There is plenty of other stuff that is routinely published in order to
take the burden off the FOI process.

Half a dozen down, two and a half thousand to go
--
Roland Perry

Paul Corfield wrote:
On Mon, 21 Dec 2015 09:18:53 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

snip
There is plenty of other stuff that is routinely published in order to
take the burden off the FOI process.

Which still has a cost of course. Eg someone asked last year for audio
files of the announcements Underground trains, Overground trains, DLR
and at stations under FoI. They got a CD of those on the Overgound but
not of others due to contractual conditions. Should TfL publish these
routinely? And those for buses? And in future negotiate contracts so
they can publish more? I can see that they might well be of interest to
some (relatively few?) people. But I do wonder if either that or
sending out CDs in response to specific FoI requests is really what FoI
campaigners gave their lives for And if farepayers and London
council tax payers would think it good use of their money.

--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

In message , at 15:57:26 on Mon, 21 Dec
2015, Robin remarked:

There is plenty of other stuff that is routinely published in order to
take the burden off the FOI process.

Which still has a cost of course. Eg someone asked last year for audio
files of the announcements Underground trains, Overground trains, DLR
and at stations under FoI. They got a CD of those on the Overgound but
not of others due to contractual conditions. Should TfL publish these
routinely? And those for buses? And in future negotiate contracts so
they can publish more? I can see that they might well be of interest to
some (relatively few?) people. But I do wonder if either that or
sending out CDs in response to specific FoI requests is really what FoI
campaigners gave their lives for And if farepayers and London
council tax payers would think it good use of their money.

The point is that publishing the contents of the CD on the website is
hardly any more work than burning and shipping the first CD, and the
answer to the FOI request (and the inhibiting factor for future
identical FOI requests) is "look he it's on our website".
--
Roland Perry

On Tue, 22 Dec 2015 06:09:17 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:


The point is that publishing the contents of the CD on the website is
hardly any more work than burning and shipping the first CD, and the
answer to the FOI request (and the inhibiting factor for future
identical FOI requests) is "look he it's on our website".

Then someone decides to tidy up the website, so answers that used to
be available vanish. I've come across this a couple of times.

In message , at 12:41:07 on
Tue, 22 Dec 2015, Peter Johnson
remarked:
The point is that publishing the contents of the CD on the website is
hardly any more work than burning and shipping the first CD, and the
answer to the FOI request (and the inhibiting factor for future
identical FOI requests) is "look he it's on our website".

Then someone decides to tidy up the website, so answers that used to
be available vanish. I've come across this a couple of times.

That's nowt to do with the business you are in, it's poor website
maintenance.
--
Roland Perry