Freedom of Informationand

Freedom of Informationand

Data ProtectionReport (2011 to 2016)

Contents

Executive summary

Number of FOI requests received and responded to on time

Quality of responses

Do we provide all the information requested?

Which exemptions are applied?

Who are the requests from?

Subjects requested

Estimated cost of FOI requests

Data Protection

Subject Access Requests

Data breaches

General Data Protection Regulation

Appendix A – FOI response timescales chart

Appendix B – All 2016 requests with short description

Executive summary

• In 2016, we received 16FOI requests more(194) than the previous year, 2015 (178).
  
• 99% (193 of 194) were responded to within the statutory response deadline (commonly 20 working days).

• Journalists continue to be the main type of requester which we can identify.
  
• Significant rise in requests relating to Student Issues and Numbers (17 to 41 requests) and in particular numbers relating to our counselling service.
  
• New European General Data Protection Regulationwill be replacing the Data Protection Act and coming into force on 25th May 2018. It will include greatlyincreased sanctions and additional compliance requirements.
  

Number of FOI requests received and responded to on time

Calendar
Year / Total requests / Requests
on time / %
on time
2011 / 121 / 89 / 74%
2012 / 103 / 79 / 77%
2013 / 179 / 162 / 91%
2014 / 198 / 197 / 99%
2015 / 178 / 178 / 100%
2016 / 194 / 193 / 99%

Please see graph in Appendix A showing the breakdown by month

The ICO may contact authorities if it appears that less than 90% of requests are receiving a response within the appropriate timescales.

Quality of responses

All requesters have the right to request an internal review of their response. If they remain unsatisfied, they then have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Calendar
Year / Reference / Request Description / Internal
review decision / Escalated
to ICO / ICO Decision
2014 / 140106d / Kent Law Clinic costs / Upheld / Yes / Our response upheld
140122 / CCTV costs & location / Upheld / No
141013c / Wickhambreaux village green / Upheld / Yes / Our response overturned
141027 / International student recruitment agents / Upheld / No
2015 / 150209b / ICT contracts / Upheld / No
150427 / Dissertation / Upheld / No
150929b / Finance contracts / Upheld / No
2016 / 160331b / Reptile mortality communications / Upheld / Yes / Awaiting decision
161101 / Facilities management contracts / Upheld / No

Do we provide all the information requested?

Disclosure result / 2014 / 2015 / 2016
Disclosed in full / 71 / 53 / 53
Partially withheld due to an exemption / 53 / 54 / 67
Information supplied in part where held / 28 / 26 / 25
Information provided in full or part / 152 / 77% / 133 / 75% / 145 / 75%
Request refused due to information not being held / 22 / 24 / 22
Fully withheld due to an exemption(s) / 16 / 13 / 16
Clarification sought but not received / 7 / 6 / 10
Withheld as fee being charged but not received / 1 / 0 / 0
Request refused as being repeated or vexatious / 0 / 1 / 0
Request withdrawn / 0 / 1 / 1
Information not provided / 46 / 23% / 45 / 25% / 49 / 25%
Total requests / 198 / 178 / 194

Which exemptions are applied?

Exemption applied / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / Total
s12. Cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit / 36 / 28 / 33 / 97
s40. Personal information / 23 / 19 / 37 / 79
s21. Information reasonably accessible by other means / 10 / 20 / 16 / 46
s43. Commercial interests / 8 / 6 / 16 / 30
s41. Information provided in confidence / 3 / 3 / 3 / 9
s22. Information intended for future publication / 2 / 2 / 3 / 7
s31. Law enforcement / 2 / 2 / 2 / 6
s42. Legal professional privilege / 3 / 1 / 4
s24. The national security exemption / 2 / 1 / 3
s39. Environmental information / 1 / 1 / 2
s38. Health and safety / 1 / 1
s36. Effective conduct of public affairs / 1 / 1
Grand Total / 88 / 83 / 114 / 285

Note: asingle request may have more than one exemption applied to it.

Who are the requests from?

The majority of requests are from ‘Members of the public’ - This category includes requests where we are unable to identify the type of requester e.g. a journalist using a personal e-mail address.

Type of requester / 2014 / 2015 / 2016
Members of the public / 78 / 78 / 85
Journalists / 48 / 29 / 38
Commercial organisations / 20 / 21 / 24
Staff, researchers, students from other institutions / 19 / 16 / 14
Own students / 7 / 6 / 13
Campaigning groups / 11 / 8 / 11
Student journalist / 11 / 10 / 5
Trade unions / 3 / 5 / 1
MPs/political parties / 1 / 4 / 3
Former staff / 1
Total / 198 / 178 / 194

Subjects requested

The followingsubject categories are provided by JISC. Please see Appendix B for a short description of every request received in 2016.

Subject / 2014 / 2015 / 2016 / Total
Financial information / 35 / 34 / 29 / 98
Teaching and assessment / 32 / 22 / 26 / 80
Student issues and numbers / 19 / 17 / 41 / 77
Estates and buildings / 16 / 24 / 16 / 56
HR and staff issues / 25 / 15 / 16 / 56
IT provision and use / 14 / 25 / 14 / 53
Procurement issues / 18 / 10 / 15 / 43
Management and administration of the institution / 11 / 13 / 21 / 45
Admissions / 10 / 9 / 3 / 22
Other research / 9 / 7 / 3 / 19
Animal research / 5 / 2 / 8 / 15
Commercial activities / 4 / 2 / 6
Total / 198 / 178 / 194 / 570

‘Financial information’ includes expenses

IT contracts are under ‘IT provision’ not ‘Procurement issues’

Estimated cost of FOI requests

In 2013, JISC estimated that it costs an average of £144.93 per request[1].

Using the JISC figure, the cost of FOI requests at Kent over the last 6 years was as follows:

Calendar
Year / Total requests / JISC
Est.Cost
2011 / 121 / £17,537
2012 / 103 / £14,928
2013 / 179 / £25,942
2014 / 198 / £28,696
2015 / 178 / £25,798
2016 / 194 / £28,116
Total / 779 / £141,017

This only represents staff time (with 22% oncosts) and not the cost of specialist advice.

Specialist advice would include advice received from the University solicitors. This would usually be included inour retainer agreement or in exceptional circumstances we may seek further advice for more complex cases. The cost of legal advice is not included here as this information may waiver our legal professional privilege. This expenditure is approved by a member of the Executive Group.

Data Protection

Subject Access Requests

A Subject Access Request is where someone can request their personal information held by the University for a fee of £10.00. The scope of the request can be narrow or wide. The simple requests such as comments on an exam script are quick and straightforward. The requests that are almost unrestricted can be complex and very time consuming with thousands of pages to review and redact before disclosure. The most common reason for redacting information is to withhold the personal data of a third party.

2014 / 2015 / 2016
Subject Access Requests / 11 / 18 / 16

Data breaches

A personal data breach is where there has been unauthorised access to personal data. This can be due to an accident or a deliberate attack. At Kent, breaches are most common when carelessly sharing data using email.

2014 / 2015 / 2016
Data breaches / 6 / 10 / 9

In 2016, completion of the online Data Protection training module became mandatory.

General Data Protection Regulation

The new General Data Protection Regulation will replace the Data Protection Act.The full version of the regulation is available via It will come into force on 25th May 2018.

The GDPR differs from the current DPA in the following key areas:

• Fines will be up to 4% of annual turnover or 20 million Euros (whichever is higher).
• Data protection to be included inthe design process for new services and technology.
• Potentially lower threshold for notification of data breaches to the Data Protection Authority.
• Stricter requirements for gaining and holding the consent of an individual.
• Changes to conditions where a Subject Access Request fee can be charged.
• A Data Protection Officer role that is independent, provided resources to apply the regulation and has a direct reporting line to senior management.

The Information Compliance Officer has been raising awareness of the new legislation via presentations to staff including Academic Division, Managers’ Forum and Marketing Forum.

Kent FOI and DP report 2016 v1.0Page 115 August 2017

Appendix A – FOI response timescales chart

Kent FOI and DP report 2016 v0.1

Appendix B – All 2016requests with short description

Subject area / Short description / Total
Admissions / Admissions CRM system / 1
Deferred entry / 1
English language proficiency / 1
Admissions Total / 3
Animal research / Animal experiments / 1
Animal testing / 3
Animals used in research / 3
Reptile mortality communications / 1
Animal research Total / 8
Commercial activities / Academic regalia colours / 1
Graduation gown copyright / 1
Commercial activities Total / 2
Estates and buildings / Bike theft / 1
Confiscated illegal drugs / 1
Electric vehicle charging points / 1
Estates and catering services / 1
Facilities management contracts / 1
IT disposal / 1
KBS/SMSAS building / 1
Lift maintenance contract / 1
New building contractors / 1
Rabbit population / 1
Security department / 1
Sexual assaults / 2
Sexual harassment or assault / 1
Telephone contracts / 1
Telephone system / 1
Estates and buildings Total / 16
Financial information / Academic journals / 1
Accommodation income / 1
Bursaries for international students / 1
Catering expenditure / 1
Congregation products / 1
Course fee refunds / 1
Finance survey / 1
Financial settlements / 1
Financial statements / 1
Fines issued / 1
Funding from companies / 1
Funds from the EU / 1
Institutional subscriptions / 1
IT expenditure / 1
Labour agencies / 1
Library fines / 1
List of University suppliers / 1
Marketing and recruitment / 1
Marketing spend / 1
Newspaper advertising / 1
NUWPEC agreement spend / 1
Payment services / 1
Remuneration and expenses / 1
SafeZone app / 1
Tensgritree at Kent / 1
Tuition fees / 1
University investments / 2
Vice-Chancellor expenses / 1
Financial information Total / 29
HR and staff issues / Academic resignations / 1
Agency staff / 1
Appraisals and peer reviews / 1
Director salary / 1
European academics / 1
Key performance indicators / 1
Physics staff / 1
Professional services structure chart / 1
Professorial Chairs / 1
Staff headcounts and costs / 1
Staff overpayments / 1
Staff sexual misconduct / 1
Teaching contracts / 1
Teaching staff with doctorates / 2
Temporary academic staff / 1
HR and staff issues Total / 16
IT provision and use / Banned websites / 1
Digital Governance / 1
ICT expenditure / 1
ICT hardware costs / 1
IT expenditure / 1
IT helpdesk software / 1
IT staff and expenditure / 1
IT training / 2
Lecture capture services / 1
Library access figures / 1
Misuse of the internet / 1
Wi-Fi contracts / 1
Wired and wireless networks / 1
IT provision and use Total / 14
Management and administration of the institution / Bribery cases / 1
Data protection policy / 1
Discrimination incidents / 1
Equality Act compliance / 1
Equality and diversity correspondence / 1
FOI requests / 1
Free speech league table / 1
Graduation booklet / 1
Halal food / 1
Honorary graduate / 1
Lecturer email addresses / 1
Newspaper and copyright Licences / 1
Prayer rooms / 1
Prevent Action Plan / 1
Prevent duty / 1
Projects cancelled due to Brexit / 1
Racist incidents / 1
Shooting rights / 1
Speaker and event policies / 1
Student complaints / 1
Student Union requirements / 1
Management and administration of the institution Total / 21
Other research / Ethical research / 1
European funded research / 1
Smart Cities research project / 1
Other research Total / 3
Procurement issues / Academic publications / 1
Card processing services / 1
Copier paper price / 1
Domestic appliances / 1
Eastbridge Hospital correspondence / 1
Electrical spend / 1
Graduate gowns / 1
Maverick spend / 1
Photocopier contract / 1
Print services / 1
Procurement frameworks / 1
Procurement practices / 1
Telephone contracts / 1
Templeman library contractors / 1
Water treatment contract / 1
Procurement issues Total / 15
Student issues and numbers / African students / 1
Anti-Semitic incidents / 1
Chinese students / 1
Counselling services / 5
Disabled applicants / 1
Doctoral graduates / 1
Enrolment numbers / 1
ERAMUS placements / 2
EU students and fees / 1
Foreign students / 1
Full time students / 1
Hate speech and terror offences / 1
International student leavers / 1
Medway students / 1
Mental health services / 1
Mortar board injuries / 1
Noise complaints / 1
Nursing students / 1
Science and engineering students / 1
Smart Drugs / 1
Specific learning differences / 1
Student leavers due to illness / 1
Student numbers / 1
Student numbers and results / 1
Student satisfaction and drop outs / 1
Student suicides / 1
Students born in 1994 / 1
Students dropped out / 1
Students from independent Schools / 1
Students per campus / 1
Students under 18 / 1
Students with criminal records / 1
Suicides / 1
Tier 4 visa refusals / 1
Undergraduate students by course / 1
Welsh students / 1
Student issues and numbers Total / 41
Teaching and assessment / All degree results / 1
Autism studies / 1
Concession decision / 1
Degree verifications contract / 1
Distribution of Law classes / 1
Exam paper / 1
External examiner reports / 1
Failure rate of Non-EU students / 1
First year results / 1
Graphic design gender equality / 1
Helpdesk requests / 1
Journalism expenses and grade / 1
Law and History marks / 2
Law module grades / 2
Lecture capture services / 1
LLB degree awards / 1
Module feedback / 1
Notetakers / 1
Qualification of a third party / 1
School of Economics marks / 1
Smart Drugs / 1
Student appeals / 1
Teaching activities and target load / 1
Teaching hours on film courses / 1
Teaching and assessment Total / 26
Grand Total / 194

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