Dear Loughborough University,

Mermaids' annual report for 2021 includes this: "Sports Research: This research aims to find out more about the barriers which may make it more difficult for young people to access sport. Two focus groups were carried out in 2020, and a survey has been designed. Mermaids will be working with Loughborough University on this project.”

Please provide the following:

1. Any contract or agreement between Mermaids and Loughborough University relating to this research.
2. (If separate) any terms of reference, brief or description of the work required.
3. Any application for ethics approval for the research, and any associated correspondence between researchers, Mermaids and the Loughborough University Research Ethics Committee (or any two of those).
4. The survey.
5. Any documentation of the research methodology not already covered under 1-4 above.
6. All correspondence between Mermaids and Loughborough University relating to this research.

Yours faithfully,

Naomi Cunningham

Loughborough University Freedom of Information, Loughborough University

Catherine Smethurst
Freedom of Information Officer
Academic Registry, Rutland Building, Loughborough University, Leics., LE11 3TU
Web: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/data-privacy/foi/

6 September 2022

Name: Naomi Cunningham
Address: By email

Ref: FOI2669

Dear Naomi,

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request.

I can advise that there is no contract between Loughborough University and Mermaids for this research project, nor was any funding agreed. The proposed research did receive ethics approval from the University. However, Loughborough University has not commenced the research project and is no longer planning to do so.

In light of the above please will you advise if you still require the information requested below?

I hope this information is useful. If, for any reason, you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information has been handled, you may invoke the following complaints procedure: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/policy/f....

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Smethurst

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Dear Catherine,

Thank you for your response. Yes please, I would still like to see all the information held by the University that is responsive to my request.

Yours sincerely,

Naomi Cunningham

Dear Catherine

When can I expect your substantive response to this request, please? It is quite overdue now.

Yours sincerely,

Naomi Cunningham

Loughborough University Freedom of Information, Loughborough University

Dear Naomi,

Thank you for your email and sincere apologies for the delay in responding. My substantive role is within the University's Student Records and Operations Team and all my attention has been focused on registration and other key tasks required at the start of the new academic year.

I have been working through the correspondence received, some of which requires redaction, but hope to be in a position to release material to you shortly. Please will you contact me directly via a normal email address so that I can release the material via a shared file link? I do not believe this will work via the whatdotheyknow site.

Many thanks for your patience.

Catherine Smethurst
Freedom of Information Officer
Student Records & Operations Team – Academic Registry
Loughborough University

Tel: +44 (0)1509 228616
Email: [Loughborough University request email]

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Dear Catherine

Many thanks for the update. I think a sharing link probably will work via this site - would you try that? I'd prefer to keep all correspondence about my FOIA requests on this site, for maximum transparency.

But if that doesn't work, you can email me on naomi . cunningham @ outertemple . com (delete the spaces - they are only there to get past the mechanism this site uses to prevent personal email addresses from displaying - which is sensible in general, but unnecessary for me since my professional email address is already public). I can't email you direct unless you do something similar, because your email shows here as " [Loughborough University request email]".

kind regards

Naomi

Naomi Cunningham

Dear Catherine

Please can I have an update? It is clear from your previous that you have material responsive to my request. Your response is now long overdue.

Yours sincerely

Naomi

Loughborough University Freedom of Information, Loughborough University

Dear Naomi,

Thanks for your email. Please accept my apologies for not yet having responded. I just need to finalise the redaction and will let you have the relevant information as soon as I can.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Smethurst
Student Records & Operations Manager/Freedom of Information Officer
Student Records & Operations Team – Academic Registry
Loughborough University

Tel: +44 (0)1509 228616
Email: [Loughborough University request email]

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Naomi Cunningham

Dear Catherine

Thank you for your message. Can you give me a timescale, please?

Yours sincerely,

Naomi Cunningham

Loughborough University Freedom of Information, Loughborough University

Catherine Smethurst
Freedom of Information Officer
Academic Registry, Rutland Building, Loughborough University, Leics., LE11 3TU
Web: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/data-privacy/foi/

15 May 2023

Name: Naomi Cunningham
Address: By email

Ref: FOI2669

Dear Naomi,

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding; this is a very busy time of year for the Academic Registry, and it has been necessary to prioritise other areas of work.

Please find below a link to the requested information (accessible using your personal email address): https://lunet-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/r/pe....

This is separated into emails provided by the two researchers and documentation held in relation to the project and ethics approval. In the two bundles of emails from researcher 2, you will see that pages numbered 7 and 8 and 101 have been deleted. This is because they discussed matters entirely unrelated to the Mermaids research and are therefore outside the scope of this request.

We have taken the decision to partially withhold your request in accordance with Section 40(2) and (3)(A)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as we believe that the release of information which could lead to the identification of individuals (including names and other identifying details such as job title and contact details, and the details of individuals connected to Mermaids because of their gender identity or the gender identity of their child) would contravene the first DPA principle: that to disclose this information would not be fair to the individuals concerned.

You will see that there is reference to Goldsmiths University of London in some of the documentation. Please note that this was erroneous; Goldsmiths were in no way involved with the discontinued research project.

I hope this information is useful. If, for any reason, you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request for information has been handled, you may invoke the following complaints procedure: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/policy/f...

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Smethurst

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Dear Catherine

Can you find another way of sharing this information with me, please? I am getting an error message when I try to go to sharepoint. I don't understand why you can't simply link to it here, as most authorities do: there is no reason why it should be released privately to me.

Yours sincerely,

Naomi Cunningham

Dear Catherine

I have had a message from this site saying "Often when authorities share links to information that is stored in an external system such as OneDrive or SharePoint, the links they provide are time limited, which can cause issues if you try to access the information some time after it was released." This may be the problem here, in which case please provide a fresh link.

Yours sincerely,

Naomi Cunningham

Loughborough University Freedom of Information, Loughborough University

Dear Naomi,

I have created a new link to enable you to see the information you
requested
[1]https://lunet-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/pe...
these links are time limited so please do download the information that
you need.

Thank You

 

Claire

 

Claire Thorpe

Freedom of Information Officer

Academic Registry

Loughborough University

Epinal Way

Loughborough

LE11 3TU

www.lboro.ac.uk

 

 

 

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