Grace on Fossil Fuels
Dear Churchill College, Cambridge,
This is a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Could you please provide any email correspondence, and information relating to the recent Regent's House Grace relating to fossil fuel ties from 01/11/2022 and 31/03/2023.
To keep information retrieval focused, please search email records of:
(1) College senior leadership team: Athene Donald; Tamsin James; Rita Monson
(2) College lists covering: all fellows; college governing body
(3) All members of college council or analogous body.
Key word searching: “fossil fuel”, “grace”, and “Regent House” would direct searches to the following information within the time constraints of the request.
If you are to invoke Section 43 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please note you must provide details of the exact FOIA exemption, details of who would be prejudiced by this information, and a public interest test justifying a conclusion with arguments for and against the release of the information.
If you are to invoke Section 12 to withhold information in relation to any of these questions please provide details of how locating, retrieving and extracting this information would exceed the appropriate limit of £450 as set out in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Please also be aware of your duty under section 16 (1) of the Act to advise and assist me in narrowing my request to bring it within the appropriate limit.
Thank you very much for your assistance with this request. If you would like any clarification on the information I have asked for, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I look forward to receiving your response in the next 20 working days.
Could you also kindly confirm upon receipt of this email.
Yours faithfully,
Sam Greenwood
Dear Sam,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request to Churchill College. I am writing to acknowledge receipt and to advise that, in line with the statutory response period, we will revert by May 26th.
All best,
Lex
Lex Atkins
Governance Manager
Churchill College
Cambridge CB3 0DS
My usual working days are Monday-Thursday
Registered Charity: No 1137476
Churchill College takes its responsibilities to protect your data seriously. The College’s data protection privacy statements are available online at https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/about/official...
This email (together with any files transmitted with it) is intended only for the use of the individual(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain information which is confidential and/or legally privileged. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by return email (or telephone) and delete the original message.
Dear Sam,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request to Churchill College.
Regarding questions (2) and (3) we are not able to provide you with the information requested.
(2) Our IT capabilities for searching are by named mailboxes/accounts. We are not able to search emails sent to a mailing list, these would only come up in searching the mailbox of potential senders. The majority of traffic to our Fellows mailing list comes from the Fellowship Administrator, who is tasked with sending items on behalf of Fellows. I have searched sent items from this account, and there are no mentions of the Regent House Grace on fossil fuels.
(3) We do not have access to the majority of the email accounts of Council members. The Fellows and students who are members of College Council are using a Cambridge email address (crsid @ cam) rather than an '@chu.cam' email, and we do not have access to these mailboxes. We have access to the three mailboxes you requested specific searches on (Master, Bursar, Senior Tutor, all @chu.cam emails) and those of the two non-academic staff representatives. The mailboxes of the non-academic staff representatives were searched, and I can confirm there were no mentions of the Regent House Grace on fossil fuels.
Regarding question (1), I attach a PDF containing four emails found in searching the mailboxes of the Master, Bursar and Senior Tutor (including inboxes, sent and deleted). These are all appropriately redacted to protect personal data, in line with ICO guidelines. The first two emails are petitioning emails on the Grace, received by the Master. The second two emails are circulars from the University, one advertising that voting on the Grace was open, and the other informing recipients of a town hall meeting on the Grace. These latter emails were received by both the Master and the Bursar.
If you are not satisfied with the way in which this request has been handled, please address your complaint to the Bursar, Churchill College. If the College is unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner (https://ico.org.uk/).
All best wishes,
Lex
Lex Atkins
Governance Manager
Churchill College
Cambridge CB3 0DS
My usual working days are Monday-Thursday
Registered Charity: No 1137476
Churchill College takes its responsibilities to protect your data seriously. The College's data protection privacy statements are available online at https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/about/official...
This email (together with any files transmitted with it) is intended only for the use of the individual(s) to whom it is addressed. It may contain information which is confidential and/or legally privileged. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by return email (or telephone) and delete the original message.
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