FOI - ULEZ extension August 2023 [Feb 2023]

Your request 

1. Please can you advise how many complaints and objections to the ULEZ extension you have received? Inside and outside London.
2. Have you undertaken projections on how residents and workers will be financially impacted by ULEZ?
3. Please tell me the financial projections for how residents of London boroughs and workers in London boroughs will be affected by ULEZ implementation?
4. What increases in financial support will be available to residents after implementation?
5. Has consultation with DWP & HMRC been undertaken to account for the increase in claims by those who will no longer be able to afford to go to their jobs and have to claim?
6. Has park and ride or pedestrian areas been consulted on to improve air quality, rather than taxing the poor with the ULEZ and what were the air quality comparisons for pedestrian zones compared to ULEZ?
7. What is the cut off figure for emissions?

GLA response

1. Unfortunately, we have estimated that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the “appropriate limit” specified in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulation 2004 SI 2004 No 3244. These are known as the ‘Fees Regulations’ for brevity. Section 12 of the Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request if the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. The aforementioned Fees Regulations stipulate that this limit is £450; calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described and equates to 18 hours of work. We have received over 1000 incoming items of correspondence relating to the ULEZ during 2022. Therefore, it would be likely to take one individual at least 5 minutes to locate and retrieve each item, assess its contents, and make a judgement over whether the contents of the correspondence would constitute an objection. We have therefore refused this request under the cost limit provisions of section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act and this letter therefore constitutes a refusal notice under section 17(1) of the Act. The full consultation report (which includes an analysis of the responses received and themes raised), the independent Integrated Impact Assessment (which assessed potential health, environment, equality, and economic impacts of the scheme consultation proposals on different groups), and other supporting documents are available on Transport for London’s consultation website: Improving air quality and Londoners' health, tackling climate change and reducing congestion | Have Your Say Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)
2. Have you undertaken projections on how residents and workers will be financially impacted by ULEZ?
3. Please tell me the financial projections for how residents of London boroughs and workers in London boroughs will be affected by ULEZ implementation? The independent Integrated Impact Assessment for the London-wide ULEZ proposals assessed potential health, environment, equality, and economic impacts of the proposals on different groups and includes an equalities impact assessment. The full document (“London-wide ULEZ Integrated Impact Assessment (ULEZ Scheme IIA)”) is available on Transport for London’s consultation website: Improving air quality and Londoners' health, tackling climate change and reducing congestion | Have Your Say Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk) 
4. The Mayor is providing £110m in funding for a new scrappage scheme to support Londoners on lower incomes, disabled Londoners, charities and micro-businesses. This is almost double the funding available for the previous scrappage schemes that supported the earlier phases of the ULEZ. Londoners receiving certain means-tested benefits and non-means-tested disability benefits can apply for cash grants of up to £2,000 to scrap their non-compliant cars or motorcycles. Disabled people who want to scrap or retrofit a non-compliant wheelchair accessible vehicle will be able to apply for grants of £5,000 to reflect the higher cost of these vehicles. Disabled people can also apply for a nominated driver who lives at a different address if they do not drive themselves. Charities, sole traders and micro-businesses registered in London can apply to scrap a van (£5,000 grant) or a minibus (£7,000 grant), retrofit certain vans or minibuses (£5,000 grant) or scrap and replace a van or minibus with a fully electric vehicle (£7,500 or £9,500 grant respectively). The scheme opened for applications on 30 January 2023. More information, including the full list of eligible benefits, is available on the TfL website: ULEZ Expansion 2023 - Transport for London (tfl.gov.uk)
5. The GLA does not hold this information. TfL implements the Mayor’s Transport Strategy and is the main agency for transport services in London. As such, it was responsible for running the consultation on the proposals to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide and will be responsible for its forthcoming implementation and operation. You may wish to send a further request to TfL at [email protected].
6. The GLA does not hold this information. The Mayor’s Transport Strategy provides an overall vision for London transport. You can read it on the GLA website: Mayor's Transport Strategy | London City Hall. You may wish to send a further request to TfL at [email protected].
7. Only drivers of vehicles that do not meet the ULEZ standards need to pay the daily charge to travel within the zone. The ULEZ standards are Euro 4 for petrol cars and vans (widely available since 2006), Euro 6 for diesel cars and vans (widely available since 2016) and Euro 3 for motorcycles (widely available since 2007). TfL has a free online vehicle checker that will tell drivers whether their vehicle meets the ULEZ standards. It is available on the TfL website: Check your vehicle (tfl.gov.uk)