Birkbeck Students' Union Accounts

The request was successful.

Dear Birkbeck College,

I wish to make the following requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

Please can you send me (electronically):

1. The full accounts for Birkbeck College Students Union’ for the period since incorporation to 2011.

2. Minutes of any meeting where the above accounts and business of the Students' Union have been discussed, including, but not limited to meetings with:
a. Birkbeck College Students’ Union.
b. The auditors (currently Knox Cropper Chartered Accountants)
c. The audit committee or any other committee of the college where the above have been discussed.

3. Any reports produced for and by the above organisations (in 3) with regards to the accounts of the union.

4. Copies the college hold of expenses claimed by officers of the union from 2008 to the present.

5. Internal communications (including but not limited to emails, memos, and letters) relating to all of the above for the period 2008-2011.

6. Any confirmations of student status of officers of the Students Union for the period 2008-2011 that may be made without contravening data protection regulation.

All dates are inclusive.

If you are unsure about any of this request, if you would like clarification or if my request would need to be narrowed in order to obtain the information, please let me know.

Yours faithfully,

Naadir Jeewa

Birkbeck Committees, Birkbeck, University of London

Dear Naadir Jeewa

Many thanks for your request for information made under the Freedom of Information act and copied below. Your request is currently being processed by our institution and I will inform you about the outcome as soon as possible.

Best wishes
Julia Lerch
On behalf of Katharine Bock, Freedom of Information Officer

Julia Lerch
Corporate Support
Birkbeck, University of London

Tel 020 7631 6398
[email address]
www.bbk.ac.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Julia Lerch,

Thank you for the acknowledgement. For the avoidance of doubt and/or in the event of contestation due to the students' union being an independent body, I believe this request is valid under Part 2, Section 22 of the Education Act 1994:

"The governing body of every establishment to which this Part applies shall take such steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that any students’ union for students at the establishment operates in a fair and democratic manner and is accountable for its finances," and so forth.

Thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Naadir Jeewa

Birkbeck Committees, Birkbeck, University of London

Dear Naadir Jewa,

Thank you for your message. We will of course take this into consideration when answering your request.

Best wishes
Julia Lerch
For Katharine Bock, Freedom of Information Officer

Julia Lerch
Corporate Support
Birkbeck, University of London

Tel 020 7631 6398
[email address]
www.bbk.ac.uk

show quoted sections

Birkbeck Committees, Birkbeck, University of London

38 Attachments

Dear Naadir Jeewa

This is a response to your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act and copied below. Here are the answers to your questions.

Please can you send me (electronically):

1. The full accounts for Birkbeck College Students Union’ for the

period since incorporation to 2011.

In relation to question 1, please find attached to this email the Student
Unions’ Accounts since incorporation, i.e. for the year ended 31 July
2008, year ended 31 July 2009 and year ended 31 July 2010.

2. Minutes of any meeting where the above accounts and business of

the Students' Union have been discussed, including, but not limited

to meetings with:

a. Birkbeck College Students’ Union.

b. The auditors (currently Knox Cropper Chartered Accountants)

c. The audit committee or any other committee of the college where

the above have been discussed.

3. Any reports produced for and by the above organisations (in 3)

with regards to the accounts of the union.

In relation to questions 2 and 3, please find attached to this email
relevant minutes and reports from the Birkbeck Audit Committee, Finance
and General Purposes Committee and Governors, as well as reports from Knox
Cropper.

4. Copies the college hold of expenses claimed by officers of the

union from 2008 to the present.

In relation to question 4, Birkbeck does not hold the information you have
requested.

5. Internal communications (including but not limited to emails,

memos, and letters) relating to all of the above for the period

2008-2011.

In relation to question 5, please find attached internal communications
related to your questions 1-4. Exempted data has been redacted based on
the exemptions under the following sections of the Freedom of Information
Act (redactions and the exemptions on which they rely are clearly marked
in the information released):

Section 31 – law enforcement

Section 36 – effective conduct of public affairs

Section 40 – personal information

Section 43 – commercial interest.

We are withholding emails from Knox Cropper as these were provided to
Birkbeck in confidence and we therefore consider that the exemption under
section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act: ‘information provided in
confidence’ applies to them.

6. Any confirmations of student status of officers of the Students

Union for the period 2008-2011 that may be made without

contravening data protection regulation.

Information on the student or enrolment status of individuals is personal
data and thus exempted by section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act.
However, I can confirm that in the years 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11, all
but one of the Council Members, Council Officials and Trustees’ Deputies
(all elected) were/ are students at the time of election. The one
non-student was a lay trustee and under the constitution of the Birkbeck
Students Union student status is not required for lay trustees.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to:

College Secretary
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX.

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 Website: [1]www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Kind regards,

Julia Lerch

On behalf of Katharine Bock, Freedom of Information Officer

Julia Lerch

Corporate Support

Birkbeck, University of London

Tel 020 7631 6398

[email address]

[2]www.bbk.ac.uk

show quoted sections

Birkbeck Committees, Birkbeck, University of London

11 Attachments

Dear Naadir Jeewa,

Following up on your recent request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act and copied below I can now release the email
correspondence from Knox Cropper which you request in Question 5 below.
Please accept my apologies for the delayed release of this information.
Emails from Knox Cropper contain a disclaimer that information is
confidential and may be legally privileged and we therefore had to
establish the status of these emails in relation to section 41 of the
Freedom of Information Act: ‘information provided in confidence’.

With best wishes

Julia Lerch

On behalf of Katharine Bock, Freedom of Information Officer

Julia Lerch

Corporate Support

Birkbeck, University of London

Tel 020 7631 6398

[1][email address]

[2]www.bbk.ac.uk

From: Julia Lerch On Behalf Of Birkbeck Committees
Sent: 08 March 2011 19:54
To: Naadir Jeewa
Subject: FW: Freedom of Information request - Birkbeck Students' Union
Accounts

Dear Naadir Jeewa

This is a response to your request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act and copied below. Here are the answers to your questions.

Please can you send me (electronically):

1. The full accounts for Birkbeck College Students Union’ for the

period since incorporation to 2011.

In relation to question 1, please find attached to this email the Student
Unions’ Accounts since incorporation, i.e. for the year ended 31 July
2008, year ended 31 July 2009 and year ended 31 July 2010.

2. Minutes of any meeting where the above accounts and business of

the Students' Union have been discussed, including, but not limited

to meetings with:

a. Birkbeck College Students’ Union.

b. The auditors (currently Knox Cropper Chartered Accountants)

c. The audit committee or any other committee of the college where

the above have been discussed.

3. Any reports produced for and by the above organisations (in 3)

with regards to the accounts of the union.

In relation to questions 2 and 3, please find attached to this email
relevant minutes and reports from the Birkbeck Audit Committee, Finance
and General Purposes Committee and Governors, as well as reports from Knox
Cropper.

4. Copies the college hold of expenses claimed by officers of the

union from 2008 to the present.

In relation to question 4, Birkbeck does not hold the information you have
requested.

5. Internal communications (including but not limited to emails,

memos, and letters) relating to all of the above for the period

2008-2011.

In relation to question 5, please find attached internal communications
related to your questions 1-4. Exempted data has been redacted based on
the exemptions under the following sections of the Freedom of Information
Act (redactions and the exemptions on which they rely are clearly marked
in the information released):

Section 31 – law enforcement

Section 36 – effective conduct of public affairs

Section 40 – personal information

Section 43 – commercial interest.

We are withholding emails from Knox Cropper as these were provided to
Birkbeck in confidence and we therefore consider that the exemption under
section 41 of the Freedom of Information Act: ‘information provided in
confidence’ applies to them.

6. Any confirmations of student status of officers of the Students

Union for the period 2008-2011 that may be made without

contravening data protection regulation.

Information on the student or enrolment status of individuals is personal
data and thus exempted by section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act.
However, I can confirm that in the years 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11, all
but one of the Council Members, Council Officials and Trustees’ Deputies
(all elected) were/ are students at the time of election. The one
non-student was a lay trustee and under the constitution of the Birkbeck
Students Union student status is not required for lay trustees.

If you are unhappy with the way your request for information has been
handled you can request a review by writing to:

College Secretary
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX.

If you remain dissatisfied with the handling of your request or complaint,
you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner at:

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

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 Website: [3]www.ico.gov.uk

There is no charge for making an appeal.

Kind regards,

Julia Lerch

On behalf of Katharine Bock, Freedom of Information Officer

Julia Lerch

Corporate Support

Birkbeck, University of London

Tel 020 7631 6398

[4][email address]

[5]www.bbk.ac.uk

show quoted sections

Dear Julia,

Thank you very much for all the hard work that's been put into this. It will be enormously beneficial for students attempting to hold up high standards of accountability. It is only unfortunate that the Students Union failed to respond to an earlier request.

Thanks again.

Yours sincerely,

Naadir Jeewa

Naadir Jeewa left an annotation ()

Some information was identified not to be held by the college, thus the classification as "received".