What are the results of Inquiry into London Conference on Intelligence, launched January 2018
Joe Cain made this Freedom of Information request to University College London
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
UCL Department:
Office of the Provost and President
and UCL's Division of Psychology & Language Sciences
Date that Information refers to:
January 2018 to Present
Class of Information in Publication Scheme:
I do not know.
Details of Information required:
Summary:
What are the results of Inquiry into London Conference on Intelligence, launched January 2018?
On 15 January 2018, UCL announced:
"Following the controversy over the London Conference on Intelligence, UCL has set up an inquiry team led by the head of UCL's Division of Psychology & Language Sciences with three other senior academics. They will investigate the Conferences, the way in which they ostensibly breached external booking procedures and the circumstances in which the organiser was awarded an honorary senior lectureship. The inquiry is already underway and the panel aims to complete its investigations as soon as possible."
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/jan/ucl-...
I would like to see records of the proceedings of this Inquiry team and their reporting. I also would like to see records of decision making at the level of UCL’s senior management team about action in response to the results of this inquiry.
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Dear University College London,
My request:
What are the results of the inquiry into the London Comference on intelligence, launched January 2018.
Now is overdue. Can you please provide a status report.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Joe Cain
Dear Joe,
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request. We are working on it, and will let you know when we hope to be in a position to respond.
Kind regards
Alexandra
Alexandra Potts
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Officer
Legal Services UCL
020 3108 7676 (internal ext 57676)
[email address]
Office hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
Dear Alexandra,
This FOI request is now significantly overdue. Can you please give me some indication of when it will be fulfilled?
Many thanks.
Joe Cain
Dear Joe,
I apologise for the continued delay in responding to this request. I assure you that UCL is taking this request very seriously and we hope to be in a position to respond shortly.
Kind regards
Alexandra
Alexandra Potts
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Officer
Legal Services UCL
020 3108 7676 (internal ext 57676)
[email address]
Office hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
Dear University College London,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of University College London's handling of my FOI request 'What are the results of Inquiry into London Conference on Intelligence, launched January 2018', now long overdue.
I submitted this request on 27 September 2019 via email and have been told repeatedly that this will come "shortly" or "soon". I am happy to make reasonable allowances, but we are well past a minor delay. I am much surprised by this as in January 2018 UCL reported the creation of this investigation and UCL stated the investigation would be swiftly completed. We are nearly 23 months from that announcement. Meanwhile, Angela Saini reported on Twitter that UCL CAM responded to her request for this report by telling her it was "confidential". This implies a report exists, but it is not being disclosed. I have made a request to UCL CAM for a public statement about the status of this investigation but I have had no reply.
The Jan 2018 UCL statement is quoted here:
"UCL immediately set up an investigation team led by the head of the relevant Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, with three other senior academics. They will investigate the Conferences on Intelligence in London and where possible, the content of the presentations that were given, and the way in which external booking procedures were ostensibly breached, without UCL being informed of their purpose or content. The investigation will also review the circumstances in which the organiser was awarded an honorary senior lectureship. This investigation is already underway and the panel aims to complete its investigations as soon as possible, hopefully within weeks." Source: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/jan/ucl-...
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...
Yours faithfully,
Joe Cain
Dear Joe,
I very much apologise for the delay in responding to this FOI. We are working on your request and hope to be able to respond shortly.
Kind regards
Alexandra
Alexandra Potts
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Officer
Legal Services UCL
020 3108 7676 (internal ext 57676)
[email address]
Office hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday
Dear University College London,
Many thanks for your reply.
I write simply to repeat my request for an internal review of UCL's handling of my FOI request 'What are the results of Inquiry into London Conference on Intelligence, launched January 2018,' as per my previous email.
The delays simply are too long; the explanation, too slight.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/w...
Yours,
Joe Cain
Dear Mr Cain,
We have completed the compilation of information in response to your
request. Please accept our apologies for the time it has taken to complete
this work. It has taken us much longer than we would have liked.
We can confirm that UCL does hold information of the description specified
in your request.
****************YOUR REQUEST AND UCL’S RESPONSE****************
Your request:
Summary:
What are the results of Inquiry into London Conference on
Intelligence, launched January 2018?
On 15 January 2018, UCL announced:
"Following the controversy over the London Conference on Intelligence, UCL
has set up an inquiry team led by the head of UCL's Division of Psychology
& Language Sciences with three other senior academics. They will
investigate the Conferences, the way in which they ostensibly breached
external booking procedures and the circumstances in which the organiser
was awarded an honorary senior lectureship. The inquiry is already
underway and the panel aims to complete its investigations as soon as
possible."
[1]https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2018/jan/ucl-...
I can confirm that UCL does hold this information.
However, the information requested is exempt from disclosure under Section
36(2)(b) of the Act and Section 40(2) of the Act.
Section 36(2)(b) states:
“Information to which this section applies is exempt information if, in
the reasonable opinion of a qualified person, disclosure of the
information under this Act
(b) would, or would be likely to, inhibit—
(i) the free and frank provision of advice, or
(ii) the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of
deliberation”
This exemption requires a public interest test to be conducted in order
for the exemption to be applied. Please see the end of this response for
the public interest test in full and the outcome.
The application of this exemption also requires the reasonable opinion of
a qualified person (for UCL this is the Provost of the University). I can
confirm that his opinion has been sought and provided.
Public Interest Test for the application of Section 36(2)(b):
Arguments in favour of disclosure
There is a public interest in transparency and accountability in the use
of public funds and the consideration of sensitive topics. The public
interest lies in the public being provided with details of how sensitive
issues are dealt with at a public authority, and the outcome of them.
Arguments in favour of withholding
UCL launched an Inquiry into the history of eugenics at the university.
The Inquiry is looking at UCL’s historical role in, and the current status
of, the teaching and study of the history of eugenics as well as the
current status of UCL’s benefit from any financial instruments linked to
the study of eugenics. A copy of the report into the London Conference on
Intelligence (the information which is the subject of this FOI) is likely
to be provided to the Inquiry, in order to assist them to carry out their
role.
As the report which is the subject of the request is likely to be provided
to the Inquiry, in order to fulfil the purpose of the review, it is
crucial that UCL is entirely open with and accessible to the Inquiry and
any relevant documents are disclosed to the panel first in order to allow
them to complete their work. The inquiry will be setting out their views
comprehensively and critically on the issue of eugenics in a report later
this year, which is in the public interest and will be made publicly
available by UCL.
Section 40(2) by virtue of s40 (3)(a)(i) states:
“(2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also
exempt information if—
(a) it constitutes personal data which does not fall within subsection
(1), and
(b) the first, second or third condition below is satisfied.
(3A)The first condition is that the disclosure of the information to a
member of the public otherwise than under this Act—
(a)would contravene any of the data protection principles, or
(b)would do so if the exemptions in section 24(1) of the Data Protection
Act 2018 (manual unstructured data held by public authorities) were
disregarded.”
Section 40(2) of the FOIA allows a public authority to withhold
information from a response to a request under the FOIA when the
information requested is personal data relating to someone other than the
requestor, and its disclosure would breach any of the Data Protection
principles.
In this case some of the information contained in the report is exempt by
virtue of section 40(2).
****************YOUR REQUEST AND UCL’S RESPONSE****************
If you are unhappy with our response to your request and wish to make a
complaint or request a review of our decision, please email
[email address]. Emails should include the words ‘Internal Review’
in the subject and be marked For the Attention of the Chief Operating
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Please note, complaints and requests for internal review received more
than two months after the initial decision will not be handled.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner at the address given below.
You should do this within two months of our final decision.
If you have any queries or concerns, please contact me using the details
provided in this letter and including the request reference number.
Further information on the Freedom of Information Act is available from
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Kind regards,
Mehwish Sultan
Data Protection and Freedom of Information Adviser
University College London
Legal Services
E: [2][email address] Data Protection: [3][email address]
FOI: [4][UCL request email].
Telephone: +44 (0)203 108 7862 (internal 57862)
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References
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Joe Cain left an annotation ()
This request was refused. However, on 28 Feb 2020, UCL Provost cut through the muddle and released the report of this investigation. It is heavily redacted. But it is released nonetheless.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/provost/sites/prov...
The release said:
"London Conference on Intelligence
In line with UCL's commitment to be transparent about our eugenics history, the university is also publishing our final investigation report into the London Conference on Intelligence, an event held by an honorary member of staff on UCL’s campus without our agreement."