Freedom of Information

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For information requests and expert advice on data protection legislation, please contact Information Compliance.

info-compliance@kcl.ac.uk

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives the public a general right of access to the recorded information held by all UK public authorities, including King’s College London. The Act is designed to promote openness across the public sector.

Information Compliance handle enquiries received by the university under the UK's framework of information access and privacy laws.

This includes requests made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

We also provide expert information, advice and training on a comprehensive range of compliance issues.

King’s is committed to openness, and we proactively publish a lot of information about the University and its activities on our website. If the information you are looking for isn’t on the web you may need to make an access request.

Freedom of Information requests: guidance for University staff

All King's staff must follow the University's FOI procedure as set out in the Freedom of Information Policy.

Upon receiving an information access request, staff need to consider the following:

1) Is the information already accessible to the requester? King’s is committed to openness, and the University proactively publishes a lot of information about its activities on our website For example:

Finance which includes the Vice-Chancellor's remuneration and Senior Leadership Team's Expenses Schedule).
The University is required by law to send a large variety of information about students and staff to the HESA, where it forms part of the HESA public record and is used for statistical analysis. Publication of these datasets is the stated public task of the HESA, it is the role the law established it to perform for the UK. The datasets it publishes then are considered to be high quality, having undergone lengthy and comprehensive quality assurance and data validation processes. If a request asks for staff or student data, staff should always confirm whether that data is already available or will soon be available through HESA.

2) If the information is not already accessible to the requester, ask yourself whether the information can be safely disclosed under your team's Business as Usual? If so, please do! Or check with your line manager if you are unsure. This provides a better service for individuals requesting information (who are often our prospective students). For example, King's advisors at the University's Contact Centre are on hand to answer any questions prospective students have about King’s College London, our courses, the application process, and more: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study-at-kings/contact.

3) If the request does not fall within established team disclosure processes (your BAU) and/or exemptions to withhold data may apply then Information Compliance will need to manage the University’s response and staff should forward such requests to info-compliance@kcl.ac.uk. without delay.

Information Compliance provide staff training for teams on information access requests covering UK legal obligations, King’s Procedures, and support around what should be covered under your BAU. Please contact info-compliance@kcl.ac.uk to arrange a booking.

Freedom of Information requests: guidance for requesters

The College has a Freedom of Information Policy, which includes details of the appeals process.

If you're unable to find an answer to your query online, please do contact us using the methods above.

The easiest way to make a request is to email info-compliance@kcl.ac.uk.

For a request to be considered valid under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, it must:

be in writing;
include a name and address for correspondence (email address is sufficient);
detail the information requested.

There is also some helpful guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office on how to make a request.

The university must respond to requests within 20 working days by:

Confirming whether it holds the information
Providing a copy or summary of the information
Informing the requester why the information has been withheld (for more information on withheld information please see our Exemptions section)

If you do not receive an official acknowledgement of your request within 2 working days, please follow up with us as soon as possible, as it may mean we have not received your request.

Disclosure Log

King’s routinely publishes information about the FOI requests that we have received and how we have responded to them in our disclosure log. You can also find FOI responses from King's College London on the WhatDoTheyKnow? platform which updates automatically so lists more recent responses.

The University also proactively publishes a lot of information about its activities on our website (e.g. Finance which includes the Vice-Chancellor's remuneration and Senior Leadership Team's Expenses Schedule)

Please search or browse through past requests and the information already published on the King's website before submitting a new request.

For information on current and forthcoming tendering opportunities, please visits our supplier webpages here

Exemptions

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 contains a number of exemptions which may be applied to information held by the university.

Information Compliance are required to consider whether the exemption is absolute or qualified.

An absolute exemption is where the university is not required to consider the public interest in disclosing the information, these include:

Information accessible to the applicant by other means;
Information that is personal and would breach the Data Protection Act 1998;
Information provided In Confidence.

A qualified exemption is where the university is required to consider the public interest in disclosing the information. Examples of this type of exemption include:

Information intended for future publication;
Information that is pre-published research data;
Information that impacts the health and safety of an individual;
Information covered by Legal Professional Privilege (LLP);
Information that impacts the commercial interests of any organisation.

Once a qualified exemption is engaged, the university is legally able to extend the statutory deadline.

This is only if we require more time to consider the public interest arguments and is the only time when the 20 working day statutory deadline can be extended.

The university will write to you before the original response deadline to inform you of this.

King's College London is also able to refuse to process any request would cost more than £450 to process. If the university calculates that a request will exceed this limit, we will write to inform you and provide advice on how to proceed.

Internal Reviews

If you are not satisfied with the university's response to your request for information, you may request an Internal Review by writing to our address or email address above.

Requests for internal review should be submitted within 60 calendar days of the date of the response to your request.

When submitting a request, please detail why you do not agree with the initial response and what factors you would like to be taken into account as part of the review.

Where applicable, this should include any public interest arguments for disclosure.

Though there is no statutory deadline for responding to Internal Reviews, the university will endeavour to issue a response within 20 working days of receipt.

If the review will take longer to conduct, you will be told why and when you can expect a response.

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the university's Internal Review, you can contact the ICO at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Web: https://ico.org.uk/

Publication Scheme

King’s College London has adopted the Model Publication Scheme for the public sector issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO expects public authorities to adopt the Model Publication Scheme without modification.

ICOModelPublicationScheme1 - (pdf) 140 Kb

The Model Publication Scheme commits us to making the following classes of information available to the public:

Who we are and what we do.
Organisational information, locations and contacts, constitutional and legal governance.

What we spend and how we spend it.
Financial information relating to projected and actual income and expenditure, tendering, procurement and contracts.

What our priorities are and how we are doing.
Strategy and performance information, plans, assessments, inspections and reviews.

How we make decisions.
Policy proposals and decisions. Decision making processes, internal criteria and procedures, consultations.

Our policies and procedures.
Current written protocols for delivering our functions and responsibilities.

Lists and registers.
Information held in registers required by law and other lists and registers relating to the functions of the authority.

The services we offer.
Advice and guidance, booklets and leaflets, transactions and media releases. A description of the services offered.

You can find the majority of this information on our website by following the links contained in the College’s Guide to Information.

KCLGuidetoInformation (3) - (pdf) 308 Kb

The Guide is based on the ICO’s Definition Document for Universities, which explains how the Commissioner expects universities to interpret the Model Publication Scheme. The Guide plus this webpage comprise the College’s Freedom of Information Publication Scheme.

The classes of information which we publish will not include:

Information the disclosure of which is prevented by law, or exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, or is otherwise properly considered to be protected from disclosure;
Information in draft form; and
Information that is no longer easily available

How information is made available

The Guide to Information indicates what information is covered by the Publication Scheme and how it can be obtained.
Information is normally provided via the College’s website. Where this is impractical, the Guide to Information will indicate how the information can be obtained by other means. Requests for the information should be directed to Information Compliance.
In exceptional circumstances some information may be available only by viewing in person on request. Where requested, an appointment to view the information will be arranged within a reasonable timescale.
Information will be provided in the language in which it is held or in such other language that is legally required. Where the College is legally required to translate any information, it will do so.
Individuals who require information in formats other than those specified in the Guide to Information may request the information in those formats by contacting Information Compliance. The College reserves the right to charge for the provision of information in alternative formats and may refuse to do so.
Obligations under disability and discrimination legislation and any other legislation to provide information in other forms and formats will be adhered to when providing information in accordance with the Publication Scheme. If you would like the Guide to Information, or any of the information which it covers, in a more accessible format, please contact Information Compliance to discuss additional ways in which the information may be made available.

Charges for information

Material which is published on the College’s website may be accessed via the website free of charge.

Where the Guide to Information specifies that information is provided other than via the website, charges may be made for actual disbursements incurred such as:

Photocopying (at the rate of £0.05 per black and white A4 sheet);
Postage and packaging; and
The costs directly incurred as a result of viewing information.

If a charge is to be made, confirmation of the payment due will be given before the information is provided. We may request payment prior to provision of the information.

Written requests

Information listed in the Guide which is not available on the College’s website should be requested in writing to Information Compliance. The College will endeavour to respond within five working days.

Information held by the College which is not published under the Publication Scheme can be requested in writing under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act. Freedom of Information requests should be sent to Information Compliance and will be handled in accordance with the College’s Freedom of Information Policy.

Feedback and contact details

It is important that the Guide to Information and this webpage meet your needs. We would welcome your feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Any correspondence relating to the Publication Scheme including requests for information should be sent in writing to Information Compliance at the following address:

Information Compliance

Department of Business Assurance
King’s College London

Room: SW1.09

Somerset House East Wing

Strand Campus

WC2R 2LS

Email: info-compliance@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 7816

Please contact Information Compliance if you have a complaint about the Publication Scheme. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Review

The College’s Publication Scheme will be reviewed at least annually to ensure that it is continues to meet the requirements of the Information Commissioner’s Model Publication Scheme and that the information contained in the Guide to Information is accurate and up-to-date.

Quarterly Statistics

The FOI Code of Practice suggests that best practice for public authorities is to publish statistics regarding Freedom of Information requests on a quarterly basis. The Code of Practice outlines a number of statistics that should appear in these reports.

King's College London complies with this aspect of the Code of Practice and quarterly reports can be found below. Please note, generally these reports will be published at the end of the month following the end of the particular quarter.

2018

Quarter 4 - 1 October to 31 December 2018

2019

Quarter 1 - 1 January to 31 March 2019

Quarter 2 - 1 April to 30 June 2019

Quarter 3 - 1 July to 30 September 2019

Quarter 4 - 1 October to 31 December 2019

Annual Report - 2019

2020

Quarter 1 - 1 January to 31 March 2020

Quarter 2 - 1 April to 30 June 2020

Quarter 3 - 1 July to 30 September 2020