Dear Harriet,

I acknowledge receipt of your email received by this office on 08/08/24.

Please be aware that the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 state that two or more requests to one public authority can be aggregated for the purposes of calculating costs if they are:

* by one person, or by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign;
* for the same or similar information; and
* the subsequent request is received by the public authority within 60 working days of the previous request.

On 16/05/24 we received FOI24-173 in which you requested details of meetings between the police and university staff to discuss Pro-Palestine protest activity, minutes of meetings and copies of emails sent and received by university staff and the police liaison officer.

On 05/07/24 you submitted a refined request for copies of emails sent and received by your university staff and the police liaison officer and/ or local police force since 1 October 2023 discussing Palestine protest activity on your campus.

As we have received a further request from you today (detailed below) regarding emails, correspondence and guidance re Pro-Palestine activity, we have, accordingly aggregated your request for this purpose.

I will revert to you in due course with a substantive response to your requests no later than 06/09/24. In the meantime, should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me, citing the appropriate reference number allocated.

Yours sincerely,

Swyddfa Ysgrifenydd y Brifysgol
Prifysgol Caerdydd
Ebost : [email address]

Mae'r Brifysgol yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg neu'n Saesneg. Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn creu unrhwy oedi.
University Secretary's Office
Cardiff University
Email: [email address]

The University welcomes correspondence in Welsh or English. Corresponding in Welsh will not lead to any delay.

show quoted sections

Dear Harriet Clugston,

Further to our email of 8 August 2024, we are not able to respond to your Freedom of Information request by today's date.

We are waiting on information to fulfil your request and will endeavour to respond in full as soon as possible.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Yours sincerely,

Swyddfa Ysgrifenydd y Brifysgol
Prifysgol Caerdydd
Ebost : [email address]

Mae'r Brifysgol yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg neu'n Saesneg. Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn creu unrhwy oedi. University Secretary's Office
Cardiff University
Email: [email address]

The University welcomes correspondence in Welsh or English. Corresponding in Welsh will not lead to any delay.

show quoted sections

Dear Harriet Clugston

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request dated 8
August 2024.

As noted in our acknowledgement dated 8 August 2024, we stated that the
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees)
Regulations 2004 state that two or more requests to one public authority
can be aggregated for the purposes of calculating costs if they are:

• by one person, or by different persons who appear to the public
authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign;

• for the same or similar information; and

• the subsequent request is received by the public authority within 60
working days of the previous request.

On 16/05/24 we received FOI24-173 in which you requested details of
meetings between the police and university staff to discuss Pro-Palestine
protest activity, minutes of meetings and copies of emails sent and
received by university staff and the police liaison officer.

On 05/07/24 you submitted a refined request for copies of emails sent and
received by your university staff and the police liaison officer and/ or
local police force since 1 October 2023 discussing Palestine protest
activity on your campus.

On 08/08/24 we received a further request from you regarding emails,
correspondence and guidance re Pro-Palestine activity which we aggregated
with your earlier requests. 

For ease of reference, I have reproduced your questions below:

I understand your university is a member of the Association of University
Chief Security Officers (AUCSO), which runs a Special Interest Group on
Protest and Encampments/Protests and Assembly.

This FOI request will make reference to pro-Palestine protest activity,
which I would like you to interpret as including but not limited to the
following activities: encampments, chanting, gatherings and
demonstrations, written or verbal comments and flyering.

QUESTIONS

Please provide:

1. Copies of all emails exchanged between your university staff*, AUCSO
and other universities’ security teams since 1 October 2023 discussing
Palestine protest activity on your campus, as well as copies of any
documents/images attached to those emails or included in the body of the
emails.

2. Copies of any and all guidance documents your university has received
from AUSCO since 1 October 2023 in connection with pro-Palestine protest
activity, including but not limited to anything addressing the following:

- Encampments

- Sharing data with police

- When to make Prevent referrals

- Sharing data with the Home Office

- Disciplinary action

3. A list of any and all meetings between AUCSO and any university staff*
which have taken place at your university since 1 October 2023 to discuss
Pro-Palestine protest activity.

4. For each of the meetings covered under the scope of question 3, please
provide the:

A. The meeting agenda

B. The list of attendees and apologies

C. Meeting minutes

D. Any presentations shown at the meeting E. Documents circulated during
the meeting

5. Please provide copies of all emails sent and received by your
university staff* and police since 17 May 2024 discussing Palestine
protest activity on your campus, as well as copies of any documents/images
attached to those emails or included in the body of the emails.

6. A list of any and all meetings between police and any university staff*
which have taken place at your university since 17 May 2024 to discuss
Pro-Palestine protest activity.

7. For each of the meetings covered under the scope of question 3, please
provide the:

A. The meeting agenda

B. The list of attendees and apologies

C. Meeting minutes

D. Any presentations shown at the meeting E. Documents circulated during
the meeting

Due to regular contact with South Wales Police across the University for a
range of different matters and the requirement for us to plan and react to
ensure we maintain a safe, secure and accessible campus working in
partnership with South Wales Police and many other internal university
departments/schools, it is a reasonable estimate that information for
questions 5 and 6 would take longer than 18 hours to collate. Also, taking
into consideration time already spent in collating, retrieving and
extraction information for a response to your previous request
(FOI24-220), searching for and providing the information you have
requested would exceed the time limit allowed under the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004.  Accordingly, section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
therefore applies to this request.  It would not be appropriate for us to
select which of your remaining questions to answer within the cost limit.

Under section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act we have a duty to
provide advice and assistance on how you can refine your request to fall
within the cost limits.  As per the advice above, requesting information
that requires the collation of correspondence from staff across the
university departments and schools is unlikely to fall with the cost
limits set down by the legislation.  You have already received the
disclosure to your refined request of correspondence from 1^st October to
5^th July between South Wales Police and our security team in response to
FOI24-220. You will need to submit a refined request if you would like to
request information other than that which you have already received in
response to your previous request..

I trust the above explanation satisfies your enquiry.  Should you feel
dissatisfied with this response or the way in which your request was
handled you can request an Internal Review. This should be made in writing
within 40 working days of the date of this email. Please provide your
unique reference number of your request, information on why you are
dissatisfied and any detail you would like us to consider as part of the
Internal Review process. Email your request to
[1][email address] where it will be forwarded to the
University’s Data Protection Officer who will be responsible for
overseeing the review.

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome, you have the right to
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for consideration.  The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at the following address:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further information is available on their
website: [2]Make a complaint | ICO.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
Cardiff University. If you require further assistance, please feel free to
contact me.

Kind regards,

Swyddfa Ysgrifenydd y Brifysgol University Secretary’s Office

Prifysgol Caerdydd Cardiff University

Ebost : [3][email address] Email: [4][email address] 
 
 
 
The University welcomes
Mae'r Brifysgol yn croesawu correspondence in Welsh or English. 
gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg neu'n Saesneg.  Corresponding in Welsh will not lead
Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn creu to any delay.
unrhwy oedi.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
3. mailto:[email address]
4. mailto:[email address]

Dear Harriet,

I acknowledge receipt of your email received by this office on 23/9/24

Please be aware that the Freedom of Information and Data Protection
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 state that two or more
requests to one public authority can be aggregated for the purposes of
calculating costs if they are:

• by one person, or by different persons who appear to the public
authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign;

• for the same or similar information; and

• the subsequent request is received by the public authority within 60
working days of the previous request.

On 05/07/24 you submitted a refined request (further to FOI24-173 which
had been refused under section 12 - Costs)  for copies of emails sent and
received by your university staff and the police liaison officer and/ or
local police force since 1 October 2023 discussing Palestine protest
activity on your campus.  Our response was sent on 16th September. 

On 8/8/24 you submitted a request for email exchanges, guidance documents
meetings with AUCSO as well as emails sent and received by university
staff and police and information related to meetings with police (refused
under section 12 - Costs)

As we have received a further refined request from you today (detailed
below) regarding emails, correspondence and guidance re Pro-Palestine
activity, we have, accordingly aggregated your request for this purpose. 

I will revert to you in due course with a substantive response to your
requests no later than 21/10/24. In the meantime, should you have any
queries, please do not hesitate to contact me, citing the appropriate
reference number allocated.

Yours sincerely,

┌─────────────────────────────┬─┬─────────────────────────────┐
│Gwasanaeth Cais am Wybodaeth │ │Information Request Service, │
│ │ │Compliance & Risk,  │
│Cydymffurfiaeth a Risg  │ │ │
│ │ │University Secretary’s │
│Swyddfa Ysgrifennydd y │ │Office  │
│Brifysgol  │ │ │
├─────────────────────────────┼─┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Prifysgol Caerdydd  │ │Cardiff University  │
├─────────────────────────────┼─┼─────────────────────────────┤
│  │ │  │
├─────────────────────────────┼─┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Ebost: │ │Email: │
│[1][email address] │ │[2][email address] │
│ │ │ │
│  │ │  │
│ │ │ │
│Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth │ │We welcome correspondence in │
│trwy’r Gymraeg neu’r Saesneg │ │Welsh or English  │
└─────────────────────────────┴─┴─────────────────────────────┘

show quoted sections

Dear Harriet Clugston,

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request dated
23^rd September:

For ease of reference, I have reproduced your questions below and set out
our corresponding responses.

I would like to submit a refined request for information.

Please answer only questions 1 and 5 of this FOI request, targeting email
correspondence, sent on 8 August 2024.

If it would exceed the cost limit to provide all emails held by Cardiff
staff covered under the scope of this question, please restrict your
searches to only those emails you can locate in the inboxes used
specifically by Cardiff University's security team (one of which appears
to be the Control Room Inbox
[1]https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/help/contact-u...),
as well as the one used by the Head of the Security Team at Cardiff.

Please note that the time taken for redactions does not normally
contribute towards the cost limit.

Finally, if this request would still exceed the cost limit after being
aggregated with previous requests, then please provide a specific
breakdown of exactly how much time has been spent fulfilling previous
requests and how much time is estimated to be required to answer each of
the two questions in this request individually.

1. Copies of all emails exchanged between your university staff*, AUCSO 
and other universities’ security teams since 1 October 2023 discussing 
Palestine protest activity on your campus, as well as copies of any 
documents/images attached to those emails or included in the body of the 
emails.

Information not held.  We have not responded to any emails from AUCSO or
other universities’ security teams.  The university receives AUCSO
briefings which are general updates sent to all members but we do not hold
email exchanges between the university and AUCSO and other universities.

2. Copies of any and all guidance documents your university has received 
from AUSCO since 1 October 2023 in connection with pro-Palestine protest 
activity, including but not limited to anything addressing the following:

- Encampments

- Sharing data with police

- When to make Prevent referrals

- Sharing data with the Home Office

- Disciplinary action

Information not held. Please see above.

3. A list of any and all meetings between AUCSO and any university staff* 
which have taken place at your university since 1 October 2023 to discuss 
Pro-Palestine protest activity.

Information not held.  We have not attended any meetings during the period
requested.

4. For each of the meetings covered under the scope of question 3, please 
provide the:

A. The meeting agenda

B. The list of attendees and apologies

C. Meeting minutes

D. Any presentations shown at the meeting E. Documents circulated during 
the meeting

Not applicable.

5. Please provide copies of all emails sent and received by your 
university staff* and police since 17 May 2024 discussing Palestine 
protest activity on your campus, as well as copies of any
documents/images  attached to those emails or included in the body of the
emails.

As per our response to this question for  FOI24-271, due to regular
contact with South Wales Police across the University for a range of
different matters and the requirement for us to plan and react to ensure
we maintain a safe, secure and accessible campus working in partnership
with South Wales Police and many other internal university
departments/schools, it is a reasonable estimate that this information
would take longer than 18 hours to collate. As the time involved in
searching for and providing the information you have requested would
exceed the time limit (18 hours) allowed under the Freedom of Information
and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.  It is
a reasonable estimate that a response to this question alone would exceed
the cost limit without taking into consideration time already spent on
collating, retrieving and extracting the information for your previous
request (FOI24-220).

With regard to your request to then restrict our search to the emails to
the mailboxes of our security team, we have already provided you with this
in our response to FOI24-220.  This disclosure included email within the
requested time period 17^th May up to and including the voluntary
disbandment of the pro-Palestinian encampment.  This information is
therefore also already accessible to you and therefore section 21 of the
Freedom of Information Act applies (information already reasonably
accessible).  Redactions to this disclosure are fully explained in our
response to FOI24-220.

I trust this information satisfies your enquiry.  Should you feel
dissatisfied with this response or the way in which your request was
handled you can request an Internal Review. This should be made in writing
within 40 working days of the date of this email. Please provide your
unique reference number of your request, information on why you are
dissatisfied and any detail you would like us to consider as part of the
Internal Review process. Email your request to
[2][email address] where it will be forwarded to the
University’s Data Protection Officer who will be responsible for
overseeing the review.

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome, you have the right to
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for consideration.  The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at the following address:
Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further information is available on their
website: [3]Make a complaint | ICO.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in
Cardiff University. If you require further assistance, please feel free to
contact me.

Kind regards,

Swyddfa Ysgrifenydd y Brifysgol University Secretary’s Office

Prifysgol Caerdydd Cardiff University

Ebost : [4][email address] Email: [5][email address] 
 
 
 
The University welcomes
Mae'r Brifysgol yn croesawu correspondence in Welsh or English. 
gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg neu'n Saesneg.  Corresponding in Welsh will not lead
Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn creu to any delay.
unrhwy oedi.

References

Visible links
1. https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/help/contact-u...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/
4. mailto:[email address]
5. mailto:[email address]