FOI_25-227 External investigators for disciplinary or grievance matters
Date of response: 12 August 2025
We have now considered your request of 03 August 2025 for the following information:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide information on the use of external or independent investigators for internal staff matters such as grievances, disciplinaries, and complaints of bullying or harassment.
This request applies only to staff investigations, not student complaints or academic misconduct cases.
The financial year is from 1 April to 31 March.
Please provide, for each individual investigation during:
- 2022/23
- 2023/24
- 2024/25
1. Financial year
2. Total cost of investigator (£)
3. Hours charged (if known)
4. Investigator type:
- Independent freelancer
- Specialist workplace investigation provider
- Employers' organisation
- Solicitor/law firm
- Other (please specify)
Preferred tabular format (e.g. spreadsheet or CSV), with each case on a separate line (not grouped by year).
Example format:
| Financial Year | Cost (£) | Hours Charged | Investigator Type |
|----------------|----------|----------------|-------------------|
| 2022/23 | 3,200 | 16 | Private solicitor |
If this request exceeds the cost limit, please advise how it could be refined.
Our response:
| Financial year | Cost | Hours charged | Investigator type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act |
| 2023-24 | £3,937.50 (+VAT) | 37.5 | HR Consultant |
| 2024-25 | £13,285 (+VAT) | Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act | HR Consultant |
Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act
On this occasion it is not possible to provide all of the requested information. In line with your rights under section 1(1)(a) of the Act to be informed whether information is held, we confirm that the University does not hold any recorded information for any use of external or independent investigators for internal staff matters such as grievances, disciplinaries or complaints of bullying or harassment for financial year 2022-23, as no such services were used in this year.
We also confirm we do not hold the requested information for the hours charged for use of external investigators in 2024-25 financial year, as the charges were based on a daily rate, and not hourly. The total cost paid was for 11 days.