FOI_26-166 Students and staff arrested or disciplined for protest activity since 01 January 2022

Date of response: 14 August 2026

We have now considered your request of 22 July 2026 for the following information:

I’m requesting information pertaining to any and all protest activity involving your staff and students. By “protest activity”, I am referring to actions including, but not limited to, verbal or written statements, flyering, picketing, waving of banners, disruptions of talks/events/lectures and encampments.

In answering this request, please take a broad interpretation of the term “protest activity”, including activity you may instead classify as unauthorised protest, misconduct, or criminality (such as criminal damage or harassment) but which the individual evidently carried out for the purpose of protest (for instance, they were taking part in a demonstration; expressed support for a political cause, or; are involved in a campus protest group).

Please note I am requesting information regarding two non-mutually exclusive types of protest cause which I define (for the purposes of this FOI) as follows:

A. Environmental or climate activism. I use these terms interchangeably to refer to groups opposing climate change, the fossil fuels industry and, in particular, any perceived links between your university and the oil and gas industry.

B. Pro-Palestine activism, including any protest activity directed towards your university’s perceived links to the defence sector/arms trade or other companies alleged to be complicit in Israel’s military action in Gaza.

QUESTIONS

Please provide the following information:

Arrests

Question 1. The total number of students at your university who you have been informed have been arrested in connection with their pro-Palestine protest activity on campus since 1 January 2022, broken down by:

A. Date of arrest

B. Suspected offence

C. Outcome, if known, such as: No Further Action; Charged;

D. CAD numbers (if known)

E. Whether they are (i) on a student visa and, if so, whether (ii) your universities’ visa team as been informed of their arrest and (iii) whether that team has informed the Home Office

Our response:

Zero.

We can confirm we have not been informed of any students arrested in connection with pro-Palestine protest activity or environmental or climate activism on campus for the requested period, therefore our response to questions 1a to 1e is ‘not applicable’.

Question 2. The total number of staff at your university who you have been informed have been arrested in connection with their pro-Palestine protest activity on campus since 1 January 2022, broken down by:

A. Date of arrest

B. Suspected offence

C. Outcome, if known (eg no further action, any charges brought, other)

D. CAD number (if known)

E. Whether they are (i) on a student visa and, if so, whether (ii) your universities’ visa team as been informed of their arrest and (iii) whether that team has informed the Home Office

Our response:

Zero. No staff have been arrested in connection with pro-Palestine or Climate protests on campus for the requested period, therefore our response to questions 2a-2e is ‘not applicable’.

Disciplinaries and student visas

Question 3. The total number of students who have been subjected to disciplinary investigations in connection with their pro-Palestine protest activity since the 1 January 2022, broken down by:

A. Date investigation was launched

B. Reason for investigation (i.e. the misconduct allegation)

C. Outcome of investigation, including no further action

D. Whether they were suspended

E. Whether they are (i) on a student visa and, if so, whether (ii) your universities’ visa team as been informed of their disciplinary and (iii) whether that team has informed the Home Office]

Our response:

Zero.

There have been no students subjected to disciplinary investigations in connection with pro-Palestine or Climate protest activity since 01 January 2022, therefore our response to questions 3a to 3e is ‘not applicable.

We wish to note that protesting activity in itself is not cause for a student to face disciplinary action.

Only when a student is suspected of breaching the University’s General Regulations for Students will disciplinary procedures be invoked. Pro-Palestine action, or any protest activity, such as Climate or environmental activism, is not a breach of general regulations. A student would only face disciplinary investigation/disciplinary action should they be suspected of breaching General Regulations.

Question 4. The total number of staff who have been subjected to disciplinary investigations in connection with pro-Palestine protest activity, broken down by:

A. Date investigation was launched

B. Reason for investigation (i.e. the misconduct allegation)

C. Outcome of investigation, including no further action

D. Whether they were suspended

E. Whether they are (i) on a visa and, if so, whether (ii) your universities’ visa team as been informed of their disciplinary and (iii) whether that team has informed the Home Office

Our response:

Please see our response to previous related request, our ref FOI_25-089 Disciplinary action for protest activity, for our response for period 01 October 2023 up to 25 March 2025.

For the period 01 January 2022 to 01 October 2023 there were no cases. For the period 25 March 2025 to 22 July 2026, there were no cases of staff disciplined in relation to pro-Palestine protest activity.

Please note that the date of investigation, reasons, outcomes, and visa data for staff will not be disclosed and exempted under Section 40(2), personal information. We have provided explanatory text below our response to question 5.

We can confirm that no staff were disciplined relating to Climate or Environmental activism for the full requested period.

Prevent concerns/referrals

Question 5. The number of students who since 1 March 2025 have been reported to your University’s Prevent Lead, or equivalent post, as Prevent concerns on suspicion of showing support for now-proscribed direct action group Palestine Action, broken down by:

A. Date of report

B. A brief description of the allegation of supporting a proscribed group, in as much detail as possible

C. Outcome of the report (Prevent referral, no further action)

Our response:

Zero students sin e March 2025 have been reported to our Prevent Lead for the above reason, therefore our response to questions 5a to 5c are ‘not applicable.

Exemption explanation: Section 40(2), personal information

On this occasion, it is not possible to provide all the requested information. The Act contains a number of exemptions that allow public authorities to withhold certain information from release. We have applied the following exemption to part of your request.

When a request is made under FOIA for information that includes personal data we are required to consider whether disclosing those data would breach the data protection principles contained within Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In considering a disclosure under FOIA, the University must also take into account that any information released under the Act will be placed in the public domain, through our own disclosure log or by other means.

We believe that disclosure of some of the requested information, specifically nature of disciplinary investigations, dates of investigations, outcomes, whether a staff member was suspended, and their visa status, would be contrary to the requirements of Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR; namely that information must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.

We have followed the Information Commissioner’s guidance in assessing whether it is fair to disclose this information under FOIA. This involves considering the nature of the information, the expectations of and potential harm (of disclosure) to the data subjects, and how any legitimate public interest in this information is balanced against the rights and freedoms of the data subjects.

We note that none of the requested information is publicly available. The data subjects would not have had a reasonable expectation that this information would be made public, either now or at the time the information was created. Additionally, we have not identified a lawful basis that would allow or require us to disclose this information. We have therefore concluded that disclosure of this information would be in contravention of the GDPR.