Donations

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Dear De Montfort University,

This is a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act.

I would like to be provided with the following information:

(1) For the financial years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 and information available for 2020/21, I would like to be provided with details on accepted donations (worth over £10,000), gifts (worth over £10,000), grants (worth over £10,000) and research funding (worth over £10,000) that have come from Chinese individuals, Chinese companies, Chinese charities, Chinese government departments/agencies, and other Chinese organisations.

For each donation, gift, grant and research funding, I would like the following information:
- Provide the name of the Chinese individual/company/charity/government department/agency/organisation that gave the donation/gift/grant/research funding
- The date the university accepted such donation, gift, grant and research funding
- The sum and description of the accepted donation, gift, grant and research funding
- A description of what the donation, gift, grant and research funding was used for

(2) Also, for the financial years 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 and information available for 2020/21, I would like to be provided with details on donations (worth over £10,000), gifts (worth over £10,000), grants (worth over £10,000) and research funding (worth over £10,000) that have come from Chinese individuals, Chinese companies, Chinese charities, Chinese government departments/agencies, and other Chinese organisations which have been rejected by the university.

For each rejected donation, gift, grant and research funding, please provide the following information:
- Provide the name of the Chinese individual/company/charity/government department/agency/organisation that gave the donation/gift/grant/research funding
- The date the university rejected such donation, gift, grant and research funding
- The sum and description of the rejected donation, gift, grant and research funding
- The reasons why the donation, gift, grant and research funding was rejected

I would like to receive the information electronically. If you feel that a substantive response to this request is not possible within a reasonable time frame, or the request is too broad or too vague, I would be grateful if you could contact me and provide assistance as to how I could refine the request. Many thanks.

Yours faithfully,

Jenna Corderoy

Freedom Of Information, De Montfort University

Dear Jenna,

During the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, while De Montfort University will make every effort to comply with the timescales of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Data Protection Act 2018, it may be necessary to temporarily divert resources to support the welfare and safety of staff and students, and away from the University’s compliance and information rights work, and this may impact our response times.

We apologise for any impact this may have, but this is a challenge many organisations will face at the moment and one the Information Commissioner’s Office have recognised. The Information Commissioner’s Office have advised:

We can’t extend statutory timescales, but we will tell people through our own communications channels that they may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

The Information Commissioner’s Office have provided additional information here

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000

Thank you for your email request below.

Your request is being considered and if the information is held you will receive the information requested within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, subject to the information not being exempt.

If the time taken to meet your request is likely to exceed 18 hours, we will contact you and ask you amend your request to bring it below this time limit. We will assist you with suggestions of how this might be achieved.

I may also contact you if the request needs to be clarified; this is to ensure that we provide you with the information you require.

Please note that some information you have requested may not be provided to you; this will only be information that can be withheld by law. In most cases the reasons will be explained to you along with your copy of any information that can be released to you.

In order to ensure a prompt response to any communication, please ensure that any further emails are copied to [De Montfort University request email].

Yours sincerely,

Paul Starkey
Information Governance Manager
Legal Services

DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY
T: +44 (0) 116 257 7655
E: [email address]
W: dmu.ac.uk

Responsible for: Freedom of Information, Data Protection Act compliance and Records Management

Paul Starkey

Information Governance Manager

Governance and Legal

DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

Trinity House

The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH
T: +44 (0)116 2577655
E: [email address]
W: dmu.ac.uk

Responsible for: Freedom of Information, Data Protection Act compliance and Records Management

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Freedom Of Information, De Montfort University

Dear Jenna,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000-INFORMATION REQUEST

During the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, while De Montfort University is making every effort to comply with the timescales of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the Data Protection Act 2018, it has been necessary to temporarily divert resources to support the welfare and safety of staff and students, and away from the University’s compliance and information rights work, and this has impacted our response times.

We apologise for any impact this may have, but this is a challenge many organisations will face at the moment and one the Information Commissioner’s Office have recognised. The Information Commissioner’s Office have advised:

We can’t extend statutory timescales, but we will tell people through our own communications channels that they may experience understandable delays when making information rights requests during the pandemic.

The Information Commissioner’s Office have provided additional information here

Your request for information has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our response is as follows:

I can confirm that we have not received, or rejected, any donations (worth over £10,000), gifts (worth over £10,000), grants (worth over £10,000) that has come from Chinese individuals, Chinese companies, Chinese charities, Chinese government departments/agencies, and other Chinese organisations.

With regard to Research funding there is nothing that has come centrally through our Finance directorate. It is possible there could have been such funding at a local level, but information is not recorded at a granular enough level to make this easy to locate without a substantial amount of manual searching which would take us over the appropriate limit as defined by Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

If you have any queries please get in touch with me to discuss them. You might like to know that the University’s website www.dmu.ac.uk contains a section on the Freedom of Information Act that lists other publications readily available from the University under its Publication Scheme.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Starkey

Information Governance Manager

Governance and Legal

DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

Trinity House

The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH
T: +44 (0)116 2577655
E: [email address]
W: dmu.ac.uk

Responsible for: Freedom of Information, Data Protection Act compliance and Records Management

You have the right to complain to the University about this decision. If you wish to do this please write to:

Regulations and Complaints Manager
Corporate Services
0.13 Trinity House
Leicester
Telephone (0116) 257 7694

If you are subsequently not satisfied with the University’s response to your complaint you have a right of appeal to the independent Information Commissioner.

The Information Commissioner’s Offices are currently closed, and therefore unable to receive correspondence via post. Please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office through their contact page

Most of the information we provide in response to Freedom of Information Act 2000 request will be subject to copyright protection. In most cases the copyright will be owned by De Montfort University. The copyright in other information may be owned by another person or organization as indicated in the information itself.

You are free to use any information supplied for your own use, including for non-commercial research purposes. The information may also be used for the purposes of news reporting. However, any other type of re-use, for example, publishing the information or issuing copies to the public will require the permission of the copyright holder.

For information where the copyright is owned by the De Montfort University, details of the conditions of re-use can be found on our website at www.dmu.ac.uk.

For information where the copyright is owned by another person or organization, you must apply to the copyright holder to obtain their permission.

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