Almost 4,000 people were fined for not wearing a face covering on public transport in London when it was compulsory, figures show.

Mandatory wearing of masks on Transport for London (TFL) services was put in place to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and amid rising concerns about the Omicron variant.

TFL announced that face coverings would stop being a condition of carriage from February 24 this year following the “shift in the Government’s approach” towards living with coronavirus.

A total of 3,996 Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issued to people for not complying with the requirement to wear a face covering between February 24, 2021 and January 27, 2022, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said.

In that same period, TFL prevented 7,283 people from travelling and directed 2,325 people to leave the network.

TFL did not record face covering compliance activity between January 27 2022 and February 24 2022.

The data was published after a question directed at the mayor from a London Assembly member.

Mr Khan said: “The safety of Transport for London’s (TfL’s) customers and staff is always its top priority.

“A range of measures helped to ensure customers can travel safely and confidently on TfL’s services during the pandemic, including requiring face coverings as a condition of carriage both before and after they were a legal requirement, and continuing to strongly encourage them today.”

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