FOI_24-307 Sexual misconduct reporting policies

Date of response: 06 December 2024

We have now considered your Freedom of Information request of 07 November 2024 for the following information:

Sexual misconduct is any conduct that is sexual, unwanted, non-consensual and causes distress, or that otherwise constitutes harassment, bullying or victimisation. It can include sexual harassment, sexual assault and/or rape.

For further clarification, we seek information on complaints and reports made by students about other students, and complaints and reports made by students about staff.

In respect of question 1, we are referring to the processes and procedures by which students may submit a report.

Regarding question 4, we request information on what was the most commonly issued sanction in cases of sexual misconduct each academic year from 2019/20 until 2022/23. We request this information in relation to both student and staff sanctions.

In respect of question 7, we understand that in many higher education institutions, students are able to make either formal and informal complaints of sexual misconduct. If you do not adopt these practices, we respectfully request you specify further e.g. are all complaints made by students and staff dealt with under formal procedure.

Please provide this information in a Word document with any relevant tables if possible.

Question 1. What are your current reporting guidelines?

Our response:

Current guidelines for students wishing to make a report of sexual misconduct state that students can make a report in one of two ways:

‘The first is anonymously. This is 100% anonymous and the University will have no record of who is making the report or who the report is against. Even though we cannot do anything with your report, it does help the University with understanding what is happening in our community.

The second option is to provide your contact details. This will enable an adviser to contact you to arrange an appointment. You will be able to talk to the adviser about the details of your report, and they can give you options for possible next steps and support you through any decisions you make on the reporting process.’

Should a reporter wish to be named and receive further support via our Student Services wellbeing advisors, contact will be made with the student to discuss their report, and enquire if they wish to make a formal complaint against the alleged perpetrator (where the individual is known to be a university student or member of staff)

Question 2. How are your reporting guidelines shared with students?

Our response:

Reporting guidelines are shared with our students via a link on our internal website and also via signposting from enquiries received either directly through Student Services or any other University faculty or department.

Question 3. How do you make these guidelines accessible to all students?

Our response:

All guidelines are available on the Report and Support webpage: Report + Support - Report + Support - University of East Anglia

Question 4. What is the most common penalty for a finding of sexual misconduct?

Our response:

The most common penalty during the requested period was a formal written warning.

Question 5. Do you offer training to staff on misogyny and sexual misconduct? If so, is this mandatory?

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 training for staff solely on misogyny and sexual misconduct. However, our Diversity in the Workplace training (mandatory training for all staff) does cover and reference stereotyping and prejudice, specifically in relation to sex (including sexual harassment). Outside of the Act we wish to state that we are currently reviewing further training options considering the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023.

Question 6. What are the time limits for a student making a report (if any)?

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 any restriction or time limit for a student making a report of sexual misconduct. The University would record or accept any report of this nature, regardless of when the incident occurred.

However, while the University does accept reports or complaints from students who are no longer registered at the University, where the alleged perpetrator is themselves no longer a registered student or an employee, we are unable to take any further action and cannot progress those complaints or reports.

Question 7. Within the last three academic years (2020 - 2023):

a) How many reports have you received?

b) How many of those reports were formal complaints?

c) Of those formal complaints, how many were resolved informally?

d) Of those formal complaints, how many were resolved formally?

e) Of those resolved formally, how many students/individuals were sanctioned/penalised as a result?

Our response:

Information not held - s.1(1)(a), Freedom of Information Act

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 number of formal complaints resolved informally for each year 2020-21 to 2022-23.

As described above, reports can be made in a number of ways. A report of sexual misconduct may be classified as formal from the start, or may progress to a formal complaint at a later stage. At the point this happens, any informal complaint management would stop. All future investigation into whether a student was in breach of the general regulations for students, or a member of staff was in breach of the staff code of conduct, would be dealt with formally. It therefore follows that formal complaints are never resolved informally.

With that being the case, the answer to part d) above is the same as the answer for part b).

Values fewer than five (<5)

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.

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 0 and 4 in relation to the number of individuals with the value ‘<5’.