Email Correspondence on Conduct of Scouts

The request was successful.

Dear Merton College, Oxford,

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information:

1. Any email correspondence (including attachments) from September 2020 to December 2020 between students at Merton College and the Head of Conference and Accommodation/ the office they oversee that discusses the conduct of scouts.

2. Any email correspondence (including attachments) from September 2020 to December 2020 between students at Merton College and the Housekeeping Manager/ the office they oversee that discusses the conduct of scouts.

3. Any internal email correspondence (including attachments) from September 2020 to December 2020 by the Head of Conference and Accommodation, Housekeeping Manager, or within the offices they oversee that discusses the conduct of scouts.

Please provide the information in an electronic form.

If this request is unclear, I would be grateful if you could contact me as I understand that under the Act, you are required to advise and assist requesters.

If any information is redacted or cannot be provided, can you please explain under which exemption(s) of the Freedom of Information Act this action has been taken.

I understand that you are required to respond to my request within the 20 working days after you receive this letter. I would be grateful if you could confirm via email that you have received this request.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

MK

Dear Merton College, Oxford,

To be clear, my legal name is Matthew Kayanja.

Yours faithfully,

Matthew Kayanja

Merton College Freedom of Information, Merton College, Oxford

Dear Matthew Kayanja,

 

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 4
January 2021.

 

Your request is being dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
and will be answered within the statutory period of 20 working days,
subject to any clarification that may be required.

 

May I ask for two clarifications at this point? 

 

First, please would you explain the ambit of “conduct” in your request?
(For example, are you referring to emails about the personal conduct and
actions of individuals or emails giving general instructions on what work
to do and how to do it?)

 

And secondly, since the College now rarely uses “scout” as a formal
job-title, please would you identify the staff you mean when you say
“scout”? (For example, are you referring to the College’s cleaning-staff
generally? And if so, are you including temporary / casual staff?)

 

With best wishes,

 

Yours sincerely,

John Eidinow

 

 

Fra’ John Eidinow

Dean and Keeper of the Statutes

 

Merton College

Oxford OX1 4JD

 

[1]www.merton.ox.ac.uk

 

College Lodge:+44(0)1865 276310

[2][email address]

 

Merton College is a Registered Charity | No. 1139022

 

 

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Dear Merton College Freedom of Information,

Thank you for the response. To clarify, emails referring to 'conduct of scouts in relation to COVID-19 guidelines' could include any email complaints around individual scouts not following COVID-19 guidelines, any emails sent to scouts or other staff on how scouts should follow COVID-19 guidelines, or any other emails that explicitly discuss how scouts have or should be following COVID-19 guidelines.

Secondly, by scout I refer to primarily to cleaning staff who normally enter student accommodation. This includes temporary or casual staff.

Yours sincerely,

Matthew Kayanja

Merton College Freedom of Information, Merton College, Oxford

Dear Matthew (if I may),
 
Thank you for your message of today.
 
Unless I've missed something (and apologies if I have), your original
request asked for the following, without any apparent limitation to
COVID-19 guidelines: "1. Any email correspondence (including attachments)
from September 2020 to December 2020 between students at Merton College
and the Head of Conference and Accommodation/ the office they oversee that
discusses the conduct of scouts; 2. Any email correspondence (including
attachments) from September 2020 to December 2020 between students at
Merton College and the Housekeeping Manager/ the office they oversee that
discusses the conduct of scouts; 3. Any internal email correspondence
(including attachments) from September 2020 to December 2020 by the Head
of Conference and Accommodation, Housekeeping Manager, or within the
offices they oversee that discusses the conduct of scouts." 
 
May I just ask for confirmation that the information you're requesting
relates only to "conduct of scouts in relation to COVID-19 guidelines", as
set out in your clarification of today?
 
With thanks again and best wishes,
John
 
Fra' John Eidinow
Dean and Keeper of the Statutes
 

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Dear John,

Yes I confirm I am referring only to the conduct of scouts in relation to COVID-19 guidelines, as I set out in the clarification, apologies for the confusion, hopefully this clarification makes things easier.

Yours sincerely,

Matthew

Merton College Freedom of Information, Merton College, Oxford

Thanks very much, Matthew.

Best wishes,
John

Fra' John Eidinow
Dean and Keeper of the Statutes

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Merton College Freedom of Information, Merton College, Oxford

1 Attachment

Dear Matthew,
 
I refer to your request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000, received by the College on 4 January 2021, and to our subsequent
correspondence of 6 and 7 January 2021 in which you clarified the scope of
your request.
 
Your request
 
Your request was for:
 
1. Any email correspondence (including attachments) from September 2020 to
December 2020 between students at Merton College and the Head of
Conference and Accommodation/ the office they oversee that discusses the
conduct of scouts.
 
2. Any email correspondence (including attachments) from September 2020 to
December 2020 between students at Merton College and the Housekeeping
Manager/ the office they oversee that discusses the conduct of scouts.
 
3. Any internal email correspondence (including attachments) from
September 2020 to December 2020 by the Head of Conference and
Accommodation, Housekeeping Manager, or within the offices they oversee
that discusses the conduct of scouts.
 
You subsequently kindly clarified this:
 
To clarify, emails referring to 'conduct of scouts in relation to COVID-19
guidelines' could include any email complaints around individual scouts
not following COVID-19 guidelines, any emails sent to scouts or other
staff on how scouts should follow COVID-19 guidelines, or any other emails
that explicitly discuss how scouts have or should be following COVID-19
guidelines.
 
Secondly, by scout I refer primarily to cleaning staff who normally enter
student accommodation. This includes temporary or casual staff.
 
and you then further clarified your request by confirming that your
request related only to the conduct of scouts in relation to COVID-19
guidelines.
 
The College’s response
 
Attached to this message you will find a zip-file containing the College’s
disclosure of information pursuant to your request. The document entitled
“Meeting notes (1 October 2020)” contains an email and an attachment: so
far as I am aware (but you may wish to check this), the email translates
as “something we need to add?” and the attachment is notes for a meeting
with the College’s cleaning staff on 1 October 2020. The other documents
are, I hope, self-explanatory. Please note the attachments in the document
“College Households”.
 
Please would you also note the following:
 

 1. During the period relevant to your request, the duties of the
Housekeeping Manager were being discharged by one of the Housekeeping
Supervisors, so there is no correspondence to or from the Housekeeping
Manager as such, but relevant correspondence to and from the
Housekeeping Supervisors would in any case be within the scope of your
request.

 

 2. The documents have been redacted in places. In doing so the College is
applying the exemption under section 40(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 to withhold the information.  Information is
exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) where a request is made by
someone other than the data subject and disclosure of the information
would contravene the data protection principles. The College is
satisfied that the information redacted constitutes the personal data
of third parties and that disclosure of this information would breach
the data protection principles. Disclosing this information would
identify individuals and impart private information about them which
they would reasonably expect not to be made public. The exemption
under section 40 is an absolute exemption and is not subject to the
public interest test.

 

 3. In so far as your request relates to email complaints around
individual scouts not following COVID-19 guidelines, the College is
applying the exemption under section 40(2) of the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 to withhold information.  Information is exempt
from disclosure under section 40(2) where a request is made by someone
other than the data subject and disclosure of the information would
contravene the data protection principles. The College is satisfied
that the information constitutes the personal data of third parties
and that disclosure of this information would breach the data
protection principles. Disclosing this information could lead to the
identification of individuals and impart private information about
them, which they would reasonably expect to remain confidential. Any
person about whom a complaint is made would reasonably expect that
information to remain confidential. Equally, a person who made a
complaint would reasonably expect the College to treat it in
confidence. The exemption under section 40 is an absolute exemption
and is not subject to the public interest test.

 
Review
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you may ask for
an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within
two months of the date of receipt of the response to your request and
should be addressed to: Professor Irene Tracey, The Warden, Merton
College, Merton Street, Oxford OX1 4JD.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The
Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s
Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
John
Fra’ John Eidinow
Dean and Keeper of the Statutes
 
Merton College
Oxford OX1 4JD
 
[1]www.merton.ox.ac.uk
 
College Lodge:+44(0)1865 276310
[2][email address]
 
Merton College is a Registered Charity | No. 1139022
 
 
 

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