Student deaths

Claire Wilde made this Freedom of Information request to University of Portsmouth as part of a batch sent to 142 authorities Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was successful.

Under the freedom of information act, please can I request the following information in relation to your university and any institutions you accredit degrees for.

a) The number of student deaths in each calender year of 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as the first quarter of 2022 (with separate figures for each year please);

b) Of these, the number of student deaths recorded as suicide by a coroner in each calender year of 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as the first quarter of 2022;

c) For each death recorded as suicide by a coroner, the date of death;

d) For each death recorded as suicide by a coroner, the campus or college which the student had been attending (if your institution has more than one college/campus).

If the following request cannot be met within cost limits, please can you provide me with advice on how I might refine my request?

Yours faithfully,

Claire Wilde

Freedom of Information, University of Portsmouth

Thank you for your email. Whilst we and the majority of our colleagues are working remotely from the University we will endeavour to respond to emails / requests / queries as soon as we are able and within any regulatory deadlines we may have, but please bear with us. We will keep you updated at all times about the progress of your request and let you know if we believe there may be a delay in responding for operational reasons

Nathalie Derrick, University of Portsmouth

Dear Claire,
I refer to your email of 19 April 2022 in which you submitted a request
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  Your request relates
to information concerning student deaths.
As you may be aware, the University has 20 working days in which to
respond to your request.  Therefore, I will respond more fully by 18 May
2022, although if it is possible to reply before then I will do so. 
Should you have any queries before then, however, please feel free to
contact me again either by replying to this email or by telephoning me
directly on 02392 843110.
Yours sincerely
Nathalie
Nathalie Derrick
Assistant Complaints & Information Officer
University of Portsmouth
Pronouns: She/her
T: +44(023)92 843110
E: [1][email address]  
W: [2]www.port.ac.uk
 
University of Portsmouth, St Andrew's Court, St Michael's Road, PO1 2PR

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Nathalie Derrick, University of Portsmouth

1 Attachment

Dear Claire, 
Please find attached a response to your Freedom of Information Request. 
I trust the information in the attached letter is helpful to you but if
you have any further queries, please feel free to contact me either by
replying to this email or by telephoning me directly on 02392 843110.
Yours sincerely
Nathalie
 
Nathalie Derrick
Assistant Complaints & Information Officer
University of Portsmouth
Pronouns: She/her
T: +44(023)92 843110
E: [1][email address]  
W: [2]www.port.ac.uk
 
University of Portsmouth, St Andrew's Court, St Michael's Road, PO1 2PR

References

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2. http://www.port.ac.uk/

Hello,
Thank you for this response.

Please can I ask that you forward this email on to whoever would deal with requests for internal review?

This refusal says the information is not being given out because it risks personal data being revealed.

There is no exemption in the FOIA that backs this up.

There is an exemption for personal data if releasing it would be contrary to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (the UK GDPR) or the Data Protection Act 2018 (the DPA2018).
However this applies only to living individuals, not deceased individuals.

I quote:
"Is information about deceased individuals personal data?
The UK GDPR only applies to information which relates to an identifiable living individual. Information relating to a deceased person does not constitute personal data and therefore is not subject to the UK GDPR."

Yours faithfully,

Claire Wilde

Nathalie Derrick, University of Portsmouth

Dear Claire,
 
I refer to your email of 17 May 2022, in which you submitted a request for
an internal review of the University's response to your request for
information concerning student deaths. Internal reviews at the University
should be directed to the Vice-Chancellor. I will therefore forward your
request directly to him. I apologise for the delay in acknowledging
receipt of your request. The Information Disclosure team has been
experiencing delays due to staff sickness absence and annual leave and our
response times have been impacted as a result.
 
As you may be aware, the University has 20 working days to carry out this
review and respond. Therefore, you will receive a response from the
Vice-Chancellor more fully by 24 June 2022.
 
Best wishes,
Nathalie
Nathalie Derrick
Assistant Complaints & Information Officer
University of Portsmouth
Pronouns: She/her
T: +44(023)92 843110
E: [1][email address]  
W: [2]www.port.ac.uk
 
University of Portsmouth, St Andrew's Court, St Michael's Road, PO1 2PR

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Adrian Parry, University of Portsmouth

Dear Claire

I refer to your email of 17 May 2022, requesting a review of my colleague
Nathalie Derrick’s original response to your FOI request relating to
information around student deaths.  I have been asked by the
Vice-Chancellor to complete that review and can now respond in more
detail.

You requested a review of the decision to withhold data in relation to
your requests for the following information:

b) Of these [the response to question a) in your request], the number of
student deaths recorded as suicide by a coroner in each calendar year of
2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 as well as the first quarter of 2022;

c) For each death recorded as suicide by a coroner, the date of death;

d) For each death recorded as suicide by a coroner, the campus or college
which the student had been attending (if your institution has more than
one college / campus).
You are correct that the Data Protection Act 2018 does not apply to
deceased individuals and I therefore apologise that this information was
not provided at the time of your request.  However, the data we do hold in
relation to student deaths recorded as suicide by a coroner is limited, as
we cannot record this level of information in our student database. 
Having spoken to colleagues who would be involved in preparing any data
requested by a coroner’s office, I have been provided with the information
in the table below, which I have updated from the previous response to
your request.

┌─────────────┬─────────┬──────────────┬──────────────────────┬──────────┐
│Academic Year│Number of│ Number of │ For each death │ For each │
│ │ student │student deaths│recorded as suicide by│death… the│
│ │ deaths │ recorded as │a coroner, the date of│campus or │
│ │ │ suicide by a │ death │ college │
│ │ │ coroner │ │ attended │
├─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 2018/19 │ 7 │   │   │   │
├─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 2019/20 │ 4 │ 1 │ June 2020 │UoP campus│
├─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 2020/21 │ 5 │ 1 │ March 2021 │UoP campus│
├─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────┤
│ 2021/22 │ 8 │ 2 │Dec 2021 / March 2022 │UoP campus│
└─────────────┴─────────┴──────────────┴──────────────────────┴──────────┘

 I trust that this information is helpful to you and completes your
request but please feel free to contact me again if you have any further
queries.

 Yours sincerely

Adrian Parry

 

 

 

 

--
Adrian Parry
Executive Director of Corporate Governance
 
Tel: 023 9284 3195
email: [1][email address]

References

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