         THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH  Records Management Section

The University of Edinburgh
Old College

South Bridge
Edinburgh EH8 9YL

Direct Dial       0131 651 4099

Switchboard   0131 650 1000

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xx.xx
24 June 2021

www.ed.ac.uk/records-management

File ref: FOI2021/00305

Jonathan Dennis





Sent by email: request-760520-

xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx

Dear Jonathan Dennis
Freedom of Information request: FOI2021/00305
Thank you for your email of 28 May requesting information about freedom of information
requests.
The University of Edinburgh is a global university, rooted in Scotland. We are globally
recognised for our research, development and innovation and we have provided world-
class teaching to our students for more than 430 years. We are the largest university in
Scotland and in 2019/20 our annual revenue was £1.12 bil ion, of which £296 mil ion was
research income. We have over 44,000 students and over 15,000 staff. We are a
founding member of the UK's Russell Group of leading research universities and a
member of the League of European Research Universities.
Information requests
Each business unit in the University is responsible for ensuring any information requests
they receive are answered in accordance with the University’s obligations under freedom
of information legislation. The Records Management Section is responsible for providing
guidance to local areas and for coordinating responses to requests that are complex or
where information is held by more than one unit.  Our freedom of information statistics
are based on the number of requests centrally logged by the Section.
You asked for freedom of information (FOI) statistics by financial year from 2015/16 to
2020/21. You asked for information broken down into the “financial year” from 1 April to
31 March. Please note the University of Edinburgh’s financial year runs from 1 August to
31 July.
The answers to your first three questions are available through the Scottish Information
Commissioner’s Statistics portal. This information is published by quarter so you can
calculate it either by University financial year, or the year you requested. The number of
FOI requests received by the University, and the number responded to within statutory
timescales (your questions 1 and 2) are recorded there.

University Secretary:  Ms Sarah Smith



The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336

For the number of freedom of information requests that were satisfied without any review
process over this time period (your question 3), the University does not directly hold this
information. However the published statistics include a figure for the number of review
requests where a ‘decision was taken for the first time’. This represents the review
requests where we had not responded to the original request before responding to the
review. If you subtract this from the total number of requests we responded to in the
relevant period (by adding together the number of responses that were responded to on
time and the number responded to late), you wil  be able to calculate this figure.

You also asked for the average response time for freedom of information requests over
this time period. We have not calculated an average response time. To calculate this
information we would need to look at information about when we received and responded
to requests in the two different systems we have used for request management in this
time period. As the University is not required to create new information in order to
respond to freedom of information requests we do not hold the information you request.
Technical exemption
Please note that as this information is available to you from the Scottish Information
Commissioner website, it is technically exempt from the University's obligation to answer
requests for information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. The
information is exempt under section 25(1) of this Act, because it is available to you by
another route. This exemption is a technical matter only and does not affect your ability to
obtain the information on-line.

If you do not have access to the Internet or would prefer to receive information in hard
copy please let me know and I wil  arrange for printouts from the appropriate web pages
to be sent to you.
Right to review
If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may ask the University to conduct a review
of this decision by contacting the University's Records Management Section in writing
(e.g. by letter or email) or in some other recorded form (e.g. audio or video tape). You
should describe the original request, explain your grounds for dissatisfaction, and include
an address for correspondence. You have 40 working days from receipt of this letter to
submit a review request. The contact details for the Records Management Section are at
the top of this letter. When the review process has been completed, if you are stil
dissatisfied, you may use the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance on making
an appeal to make an appeal to the Commissioner. If you do not have access to the
Internet, please let me know and I wil  provide a copy of the relevant web pages.
Privacy notice for information request applicants
The University of Edinburgh's request privacy notice, which describes how we use the
information you have supplied about yourself and your request, is published on the
University website.
Yours sincerely
2

Sara Cranston
Records Management Section

If you require this letter in an alternative format, such as large print or
a coloured background, please contact the Records Management
Section on 0131 651 4099 or email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xx.xx
3

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