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Ref. FOI/2014/April1 April 2014
Reply to request for information under Freedom of Information of Act
Your Ref: / E-mail dated 1 April 2014
Address: / WhatDoTheyKnow.com
Request / For all of these requests I am asking for information from the last 3 years of your records.
1. How many students details have you passed on to the police.
a) In how many, if any, of these cases has the University required a court order before releasing the detail?
2. What is the usual procedure regarding the passing of information regarding students to the police, including what information is required from the police before students details are passed on. Please include any policies, guidance documents or similar information relating to this request.
3. Please provide a breakdown of the type of offence which subjects have been suspected of and the number in each category, which has led to their details being released.
Dear Mr Franklin,
I write in reply to your email of 1 April 2014, requesting the information shown above.
1.
2013: 0
2012: 1
2011: 1
The requests made in 2011 and 2012 involved alumni rather than current students. In each case, we confirmed that the person in question had attended the University, the year of matriculation and the subject studied. We held no contact details for the individuals the Police were seeking. No court order was required.
2. Departments of the University are advised to refer any request of this nature to the University’s Data Protection Office for action. We seek to establish that the request is bona fide, firstly, by contacting the relevant Police Force to confirm that the person making the request is who they say they are, and, secondly, by speaking to that person to confirm what they want and why. We ask them to put any additional information provided in writing. We then assess the request against the criteria in section 29(1) of the Data Protection Act and the ICO’s guidance.
3. In relation to the request made in 2011, the Police were seeking the alumnus as a potential witness. In relation to the request made in 2012, the Police did not indicate whether the alumnus was a suspect or a potential witness. They stated that they were investigating allegations relating to offences of an unspecified nature that took place at a school from 1960 to 1980.
INTERNAL REVIEW
If you are dissatisfied with this reply, you may ask the University to review it, by writing to the Registrar at the following address:
University Offices
Wellington Square
Oxford
OX1 2JD
Alternatively, you may request a review by e-mailing .
THE INFORMATION COMMISSIONER
If, after the internal review, you are still dissatisfied, you have the right under FOIA to apply to the Information Commissioner for a decision as to whether your request has been dealt with in accordance with the FOIA. The Information Commissioner’s address is:
Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123113
Further information for submitting complaints to the Information Commissioner is available at http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints.aspx
Yours sincerely
(Max Todd)
FOI OXFORD