Student halls rent payments

The request was partially successful.

Dear University of Bristol,

This request concerns the payment of rent at student halls of residence managed by the university.

Please provide the below information for the autumn term for each of the following years: 2018, 2019, 2020.

Please confirm for each autumn term:

1) the number of students resident in university managed halls who accrued rent arrears during the autumn term

2) at the end of the autumn term, what was the total amount of rent arrears accrued in relation to university managed halls during that autumn term

3) the number of students who the University believe to have withheld rent as part of a "rent strike" during that autumn term

Yours faithfully,

Jo Staines

University of Bristol FOI mailbox, University of Bristol

Thank you for your e-mail. Please note that the University will be closed
over the Christmas period, from close of business on Friday 18 December
2020, reopening on Tuesday 5 January 2021.

The University will endeavour to respond to your request under the Freedom
of Information Act within 20 working days of receipt. However, please note
that due to the Christmas closure and to the ongoing disruption caused by
the current Covid-19 pandemic, there may be unavoidable delays in
responding to your request. We would be grateful if you could bear with us
if we are unable to respond within the statutory time-frame, and we
apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause.

We may need to ask you certain questions to clarify your request to ensure
we fully understand what information is being requested. If so, the 20
working day deadline will be calculated once we have received such
clarification. 

 

The University's A-Z index can help in locating information that is
publicly available on the University's
website: [1]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/index/

 

Our Publication Scheme is available
at: [2]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/s...

 

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) annually publish certain
data about students and higher education: [3]https://www.hesa.ac.uk/.
Bespoke datasets can be requested from
Jisc: [4]https://www.jisc.ac.uk/tailored-datasets.

 

For further information about the University's FOI procedure, please
see: [5]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/secretary/foi/

References

Visible links
1. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/index/
2. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/s...
3. https://www.hesa.ac.uk/
4. https://www.jisc.ac.uk/tailored-datasets
5. http://www.bristol.ac.uk/secretary/foi/

SecOInformation Governance, University of Bristol

Dear Miss Staines,

 

Freedom of Information Request (our reference FOI20-634)

 

We refer to your Freedom of Information request dated 31^st December. We
apologise for the delay in responding. In line with government advice, the
University has put in place measures to protect staff and students during
the current Covid-19 pandemic, including staff working from home. We hope
you will appreciate that this has led to some unavoidable disruption and
we regret that we have not been able to respond to requests as quickly as
we would wish.

 

You requested the following information:

 

“This request concerns the payment of rent at student halls of residence
managed by the university.

Please provide the below information for the autumn term for each of the
following years: 2018, 2019, 2020.

Please confirm for each autumn term:

1) the number of students resident in university managed halls who accrued
rent arrears during the autumn term

2) at the end of the autumn term, what was the total amount of rent
arrears accrued in relation to university managed halls during that autumn
term

3) the number of students who the University believe to have withheld rent
as part of a "rent strike" during that autumn term”

 

University’s Response

 

Further to Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “Act”) we
confirm that the information requested is partially held by the University
of Bristol (the “University”).

 

1) 2020: 996 

2019: 264 

2018: This information is not held.

2) It is not possible to answer this question as rent is not accrued by
month or term, we raise an invoice at the start of the year for the
duration of each students tenancy that is paid off in instalments during
the year but these instalments are a percentage of the total invoice and
not lined to dates or terms. 

3) This information is not held. No formal notifications of rent strikes
were made to the accommodation office.

 

Internal Review Procedure

 

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, then you have a
right under Section 50 of the Act to request an internal review.  All such
requests must be sent to us within 40 days, and must clearly state our
reference number (at the top of this email) and your reason for requesting
an internal review.  We will aim to respond to your request for an
internal review within 20 working days of receipt.

 

Your request for an internal review should be sent to
[University of Bristol request email], quoting your FOI reference number.
Alternatively, you could post it to:

 

Director of Legal Services

Secretary’s Office

University of Bristol

Beacon House

Queens Road

Bristol

BS8 1QU

 

Information Commissioners Office

 

Should you remain dissatisfied with the final outcome of the internal
review then you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner (the
“ICO”) for an independent review.  The ICO is the Government’s Independent
Body responsible for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the
Data Protection Act 2018 and The Environmental Information Regulations
2004.

 

Please note the ICO will only review cases that have exhausted the
University’s internal review procedure. All correspondence to the ICO must
quote the University’s reference number and your reasons for your appeal. 
The ICO’s contact details are as follows:

 

The Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

More information can be found at the ICO’s website
at [1]http://www.ico.org.uk

 

Kind Regards

 

Freedom of Information Team

University of Bristol

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ico.org.uk/