FOI_24-191 Students reporting cases of Sexual Misconduct
19 August 2024
We have now considered your request of 22 July 2024 for the following information:
I am writing to make a request for all the information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2002.
I am aware that I have made a similar request earlier this year but for the avoidance of any misunderstanding and misrepresentation I felt it necessary to submit a further request specifying the type of information I am requesting more clearly.
Request 1:
I would like this information to be provided per academic year for the last five full academic years that you have available data for.
Question 1. The total number of cases of sexual misconduct reported to the university by students.
Our response:
The figures provided in the below table, are the maximum number of all reports received by the University, for a range of issues, which have been categorised as either sexual harassment (Verbal, written or physical), sexual assault, indecent/sexual offence or rape.
It is important to note that this figure may also include duplicate reports, where an incident was reported to one more University department and may include cases where one or more person(s) may be reporting the same incident. Further explanation has been provided below.
2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total number of students reporting sexual misconduct | 40 | 81 | 83 | 103 | 86 |
Explanation of data:
This table consists of data from four University departments: Student Services (SS) (including reports made via Report and Support), Access and Security (Security) Human Resources Services (HRS) and our Student Misconduct Investigation Team (SMIT).
All four departments record data in different ways and for different purposes:
Access and Security data:
The University’s Security services log and record such instances of sexual misconduct as an ‘allegation of indecent sexual offence’ or ‘sexual assault’. This categorisation does not mean that every incident was an instance of such behaviour.
All instances reported to Security, involving University students, are passed to Student Services (STS), and where possible we have removed duplicate reports. Reports submitted by Security to SS will only result in a follow-up investigation and/or disciplinary procedures should the alleged victim in each case wish to make a formal complaint and proceed with a formal disciplinary investigation.
Student Services data:
Concerning the data held by Student Services (SS) the figure includes the number of individuals seen by Student Services staff advisers, where the interaction was categorised as ‘Victim of sexual assault’, or a student at the University has been ‘accused of sexual misconduct’.
Student Services data is also comprised of the number of student misconduct investigations conducted against a student accused of Sexual Misconduct
From December 2019 onward, reports made via Report and Support, where the incident has been recorded as either ‘Sexual Assault’ or ‘Sexual Harassment’, are also included in our total number of reports made.
Again, where a student reporter has chosen to disclose their name, we have removed duplication. It is important to note that as Report and Support allows for anonymous reporting, we are not always able to remove duplicates, for example, where a student reported an incident to Report and Support anonymously but chose to disclose their name or identity when reporting the same incident to any other department.
Please note that reports of ‘sexual assault’, made both to Student Services, and Report and Support, can include reports of historical assault. In these cases, we have included the report within the total figure for the academic year the report was made, not the year the incident took place.
Please also note that the University records reports of sexual assault that may come from witnesses or third parties who believe they have witnessed or been informed of an assault. Such cases will still be included in the figures above.
Human Resources Services data:
The figures provided include all instances of reports made again staff of the University which meet the criteria of your request, that is sexual misconduct, inclusive of sexual assault, harassment, rape or indecent sexual misconduct. Again, these instances do not denote that the alleged offences took place or were proven.
Human Resources data comprises of disciplinary procedures and outcomes, and again where the name of the student making accusations again staff members has been noted, these have been de-duplicated where possible to do so.
Student Misconduct Investigation Team data:
Data held by our Student Misconduct Investigation Team, in relation to Non-Academic Misconduct such as Sexual Misconduct, is retained for disciplinary investigations where a student has been accused of breaching General Regulations for Students, in relation specifically to Regulation 101.18.1.
Where the name of the student accusing the individual of any misconduct under Regulation 10.1.18.1 has been recorded, we have also de-duplicated those reports. Any students facing disciplinary due to being accused of breaching Regulation 10.1.18.1 has been counted as a ‘report’ of Sexual Misconduct.
Please note that in some instances, a report may be made to one or more of these departments. Where every effort has been made to deduplicate multiple reports of the same incident, this is not always possible.
Question 1.a. Please also provide a breakdown on how many of those cases were in reference to a student and how many in reference to a member of university staff/faculty.
Our response:
2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reports where a fellow student was identified as alleged perpetrator | 15 | 27 | 17 | 21 | 17 |
Reports where a member of staff was identified as the alleged perpetrator | <5 | <5 | <5 | <5 | 0 |
The figures provided above are for those reports, provided in response to Question 1, where the identity of the accused/alleged perpetrator, whether a student at the University, or member of staff, has been provided by the student reporter in each report detail.
Please note, that for the majority of reports made via Report and Support, the report does not note the name or the identity of the alleged individual for which the report has been made against and does not state whether a student or member of staff. Where the report does clearly state the allegation is against ‘student’ or ‘staff’ or where the name of the individual has been provided in order to ascertain if they are a student at the University or a member of staff, these have been counted for in our response above.
On this occasion, it is not possible to provide all the requested information. The Act contains several exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the following exemption to part of your request.
Exemption | Reason |
|---|---|
s.40(2), Personal information | Disclosure of some of the requested information would be contrary to the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation |
We can confirm that the University does hold this data. However, due to the small numbers involved, we consider these details are exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
Due to the small numbers involved, it would be possible to identify a living individual(s) from this information and, therefore, we would consider it to be personal data. Disclosure of this personal data would contravene the first data protection principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that being Principle (a) – lawfulness, fairness, and transparency. We consider that disclosure would constitute unfair processing of the data as any individual would reasonably expect for their data to remain confidential and not released to the public. The University is only permitted to disclose personal data if to do so would be fair, lawful, and transparent. Therefore, the requirements of this exemption are met, and we are unable to disclose this information.
To ensure that we do not inadvertently release personal data in this response or in combination with other publicly available data, we have replaced all values between 1 and 4 in relation to the number of individuals with the value ‘<5’.
Question 2. The total number of cases of sexual misconduct investigated by the university.
Our response:
2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total number of formal investigations | 9 | 13 | 8 | 9 | 12 |
Where the victim in each case wishes to proceed with formal disciplinary investigation, or the allegation against an alleged perpetrator is deemed a breach of General Regulations or Staff Code of Conduct, the University will process a formal disciplinary investigation process.
The University’s investigation is to establish whether the student accused has breached the General Regulations for Students – specifically regulation 10.1.18.1, or the member of staff has breached our code of conduct for staff.
Please note that due to the high number of anonymous reports it is not always possible to provide advice or support to the reporters of such cases. Where students have identified themselves, the University will ask if they wish to proceed with a formal complaint. Should the student in each case wish to further proceed with a formal investigatory procedure then this will be initiated. The figures provided above are for the number of formal disciplinary investigations held for students or staff accused of Sexual Misconduct.
Question 3. The total number of cases of sexual misconduct upheld by the university.
Our response:
2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of cases ‘upheld’ | <5 | 6 | <5 | 6 | 10 |
The data provided is the number of students or staff members who, following a formal disciplinary investigation, were found to be in breach of regulation 10.1.18.1 (for students) or in breach of our Code of Conduct for staff. This is how we have presented cases as ‘upheld’. This is not to say that the alleged perpetrators in each case were found guilty of the accused misconduct, simply that they had breached the relevant codes of conduct or regulation.
On this occasion, it is not possible to provide all the requested information. The Act contains several exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the following exemption to part of your request.
Exemption | Reason |
|---|---|
s.40(2), Personal information | Disclosure of some of the requested information would be contrary to the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation |
We can confirm that the University does hold this data. However, due to the small numbers involved, we consider these details are exempt from disclosure under Section 40(2) of the FOI Act.
Due to the small numbers involved, it would be possible to identify a living individual(s) from this information and, therefore, we would consider it to be personal data. Disclosure of this personal data would contravene the first data protection principle of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that being Principle (a) – lawfulness, fairness, and transparency. We consider that disclosure would constitute unfair processing of the data as any individual would reasonably expect for their data to remain confidential and not released to the public. The University is only permitted to disclose personal data if to do so would be fair, lawful, and transparent. Therefore, the requirements of this exemption are met, and we are unable to disclose this information.
To ensure that we do not inadvertently release personal data in this response or in combination with other publicly available data, we have replaced all values between 1 and 4 in relation to the number of individuals with the value ‘<5’.
Question 4. The total number of cases of sexual misconduct referred to the police.
Our response:
On this occasion it is not possible to provide any 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 the total number of cases of sexual misconduct referred to the Police.
The University does not refer any cases to the police. We can only advise a victim or reporter to report any instance to the police, although this is not something we would do ourselves and must be the decision of the victim. Should a victim decide to report an incident to the Police, and we are informed of this we may keep a record that there is Police involvement or investigation, but the University itself will not ‘refer’ a case to the Police.
Request 2:
Question 1. Will your university have a mandatory sexual consent course for first-year undergraduates in the academic year 2024/25.
Our response:
While the University offers a sexual consent course, ‘Consent Matters’, and strongly recommends that all students complete it, the course will not be made mandatory for first-year undergraduates in the academic year 2024-25.