Repatriation of human remains

Newham Borough Council did not have the information requested.

Maciej Wójtowicz

Dear Sir or Madam

REPATRIATION OF HUMAN REMAINS

I am carrying out some research into the storage, retention and repatriation of non-European ethnological human remains held in UK regional museums or archives some of which are owned, managed or funded by UK local authorities.

To assist with this could you please let me have the following information under the Freedom of Information Act. All of these questions relate to human remains that are under 1,000 years of age. If your organisation is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act please consider supporting this research anyway and providing the information voluntarily. A link to the research will be provided to all contributers when it is published:

1. How many non-European human remains do you have in your collection or collections managed by organisations which you fund or control? If you do not have the exact number then please provide an approximation based on your normal method of counting.

2. How many human remains do you have in your collection which originated in:
a. Canada
b. New Zealand
c. Australia

3. How many requests for the repatriation of human remains have you had from communities, individuals or institutions outside of Europe since the Human Tissue Act 2004 came into force?

4. Of these requests, how many were:
a. Approved in full, with all of the requested remains being returned to the communities/individuals in question.
b. Approved in part with some of the requested remains being returned.
c. Not approved.
d. Still awaiting a decision.

5. For those requests which were not approved please provide a copy of the final decision letter setting out the reasons.

6. How many human remains have you repatriated to their country of origin proactively without receiving a request?

Thanking you in advance for your assistance with this important research project which should help to reconnect numerous Indigenous communities with their lost ancestors.

Yours faithfully

Maciej Wójtowicz

Newham Borough Council

REQUESTER REFERENCE: C16557
ENQUIRY REFERENCE: E31990
Please quote your references when contacting the Council.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Thank you for your request for information received on 07/12/2018. We are
dealing with your request and plan to respond by 08/01/2019.

If you have any queries or concerns, please contact the Information
Governance Team on 020 8430 2000 or email us at:
[email address]

Yours Faithfully

Information Governance Team
Newham Council

Newham Council Publication Scheme is on: www.newham.gov.uk

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NOTE: This communication is sent for and on behalf of the London Borough
of Newham.
However the views expressed within it are not necessarily the views or
policies of the Council. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
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communication and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and
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Newham Council’s Privacy Notice can be found on our website Data
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https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Services... ,
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Newham Borough Council

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Wojtowicz,

 

We attach our response under the disclosure provisions of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.

 

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact a
member of our team on (020) 8430 2000 or email us at
[1][email address].

 

Alternatively, if you believe we have not dealt with your request
satisfactorily you may initially complain to us and then to the
Information Commissioner's Office. The Information Commissioner would
expect you to have given the Council the opportunity to deal with your
appeal prior to you contacting them. Please see guidance on the Freedom of
Information Appeals page:
http://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Services/...

 

 

As with other local authorities, the number of enquiries has increased
each year since the introduction of the Freedom of Information
legislation.  Therefore, to enable us to deal with your enquiry more
efficiently, we have introduced an online form.  We would ask that you
submit all future requests via our online form:

https://aforms.newham.gov.uk/default.asp...

 

In addition, you may find it useful to access the following link, where
you can view our Publication Scheme, a list of previous requests and
responses and/or use our E-Form should you wish to make further requests:

http://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/ServiceCh...

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Information Governance

London Borough of Newham

Newham Dockside, 1000 Dockside Road,  London E16 2QU

[email address]

 

══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

NOTE: This communication is sent for and on behalf of the London Borough
of Newham.
However the views expressed within it are not necessarily the views or
policies of the Council. The unauthorised use, disclosure, copying or
alteration of this communication and any attachments is forbidden. This
communication and any attachments are intended for the addressee only and
may be confidential. If this has come to you in error you should
immediately permanently destroy it.
You should take no action based on it or copy or show it to anyone and
telephone the Council immediately with any issues on 020 8430 2000 or any
other number provided in the communication. Please note that electronic
communication is not considered a secure medium for sending information
and therefore maybe at risk.
We advise that you understand and accept this lack of security when using
this form of communication with us. Although we have taken steps to ensure
that this email and attachments are free from any virus, we advise that in
keeping with good computing practice the recipient should ensure they are
actually virus free and should run current anti-virus software. Please
note that email may be monitored and checked to safeguard the council
network from viruses, hoax messages or abuse of the Council's systems.
Action may be taken against any malicious and deliberate attempts to
infect the council network.
The information contained in this email maybe subject to public disclosure
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Unless the information is
legally exempt from disclosure the confidentiality of this email and your
reply cannot be guaranteed.

Newham Council’s Privacy Notice can be found on our website Data
Protection
https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Services... ,
which outlines your rights and how we collect, use, store, delete and
protect your personal data.

References

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