Dear Yohannes Lowe

I acknowledge receipt of your email received by this office on 22 July 2021.

Your request will now be dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and has been allocated reference FOI21-294 which should be quoted in all correspondence. We will respond to your request within 20 working days starting the next working day after receipt, therefore you can expect to receive a response no later than 20 August 2021.

In some circumstances a fee may be payable and, if that is the case, we will let you know. A fees notice will be issued to you, and you will be required to pay before we will proceed to deal with your request.

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.

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Dear Yohannes Lowe

I am writing in response to your Freedom of Information request dated 22
July 2021.

For ease of reference, I have reproduced your question(s) below and set
out our corresponding response(s).

Please can you answer the following questions for the academic years of:
2018/9, 2019/20, 2020/21:

1) Over this time period, how many people (undergraduate students and
postgraduate students) applied to enroll to an undergraduate course at
your university who was found (either by self-declaration or when prompted
to disclose any criminal convictions) to have had a conviction for any
sort of religious or racial hate crime incident or abuse. Can you provide
the information in terms of individuals applying to enrol at your
university to start at the beginning of these academic years. i.e. this
includes those applying in, say December 2017, for enrollment in 2018/9. I
want to be clear that I am asking about students who declare (or who have
been found to have) a criminal conviction, through their application to
the University.

I am defining 'religious hate crime or abuse' as any crime relating to
verbal and physical abuse, bullying, threatening behaviour, online abuse
or damage to property on the grounds of race or religion.

When answering Q1, please can you state the types of convictions disclosed
(and how many times this type of conviction was disclosed).

For the period in question, the University does not hold a record of
disclosures of any racially/religious aggravated offences. Furthermore
should any declarations come to light in future, we would consider any
request for disclosure in line with our obligations under data protection
legislation. We would further consider the exemption available to public
authorities under Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
entitled Personal Information.  Release of information on criminal
convictions could lead to the identification of the individual, when
combined with information already in the public domain, and as this would
constitute the individual's personal data as defined under Article 4 of
the UK GDPR, disclosure would be likely to breach the data protection
principle requiring personal data to be “processed lawfully, fairly and in
a transparent manner”.

2) How many of the people identified in Q1 were subsequently allocated to
live in (university maintained/owned) residential settings (either in
apartments or shared accommodation blocks on campus, for example) with
students who identified as being from a 'BAME' background or a 'religious'
background?

When answering Q2, please can you specify the type of residential setting,
and whether the student who was allocated a house with the student
convicted of a hate/religious crime identified as 'black' or 'Asian' or
another ethnic minority, and the type of religion (i.e. 'christian' or
'Muslim') they identified as.

Not applicable.

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
[1][email address] where it will be forwarded to the Head of
Compliance and Risk who will be responsible for overseeing the review.

If you remain dissatisfied following the outcome of your complaint, 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.

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

References

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