Making an FOI request
Requests should be submitted by email to foi@admin.cam.ac.uk.
We will write to you to acknowledge your request and let you know the legal deadline by which we will respond. Within 20 working days, we will write again with our response. This will let you know whether we hold the information, and, if we do, we will either supply a copy or set out the reasons why we believe an exemption applies.
Requests that fall under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 should be submitted in the same way and are handled under the same procedures.
If your request is for information about yourself, this falls under data protection legislation rather than freedom of information legislation. Such requests, known as 'subject access requests', are handled under separate procedures; details on how to submit a subject access request to the University are published at www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/subject-access-request.
Charging
The University has the right to charge applicants for the supply of information in certain circumstances and is under no obligation to provide information if the cost of doing so would be in excess of an 'appropriate limit'. The appropriate limit is £450 in the case of the University. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the University holds the information, and thereafter locating, retrieving and extracting it. If we intend to levy a charge we will contact you as soon as possible after you have submitted your request.
Complaints
If you are unhappy about the way in which your request has been handled (usually if your request for information has been denied, in whole or in part), you should complain to the University in the first instance. Such a complaint is known as a request for an 'internal review' and will be handled by a senior Officer rather than the person who handled your original request. Details of how to submit a request for an internal review will be provided in the letter setting out our original response; it is important that you follow these procedures to ensure that your internal review request is attended to.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint or internal review, you may apply to the
How we use your personal information to handle your FOI request
The Information Compliance Office will use your personal information to log, consider and answer your FOI request to the University. We will liaise with colleagues internally (including those collating the information requested and any other offices with an interest in the response) as well as, on occasion, external advisors and/or third parties who may need to be consulted on any potential disclosure. From time to time we analyse requests to look for trends or collate statistics. If you pursue a complaint to the ICO (and thereafter the relevant Tribunal system), we will share your information as necessary in answering regulatory enquiries and making submissions.
These uses of your personal information are necessary to fulfil our legal obligations and public interest tasks in handling such requests.
For more information about how we handle your personal information, and your rights under data protection legislation, please see https://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/general-data.