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Guide to requesting information

The School is committed to promoting public understanding of its nature and activities via the systematic publication of all relevant information. The School will make every effort to provide, where practical and permissible, additional information to members of the public in those cases where routinely published information does not provide them with the information they require.

Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, individuals have a number of rights with regard to obtaining information held by the School. Appropriate information request forms are available at: web address. Before completing an application form, please read the notes below to determine the nature of your request.

Requesting information relating to yourself

Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 you are allowed to ask the School for information held about you as an individual. If you wish to make an enquiry about data that relates to yourself, then please contact the Archivist & Records Manager (020 7927 2966 or foi@lshtm.ac.uk). There will usually be a charge of £10 for this service and the School will normally respond to your request within 40 days.

Request for other information held by the School

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 you have the right to ask the School to provide you with any information held by the School. For example, you may wish to see the minutes of a particular meeting, or obtain standard information about student numbers.

The School already makes public large quantities of the information that it holds, and a description of all that we publish is available in our Publication Schemes on the School's website or from the Archivist & Records Manager.

Before submitting any request you are advised to check the School's Publication Scheme to determine whether the information you require is already available (if you make a request for information that does already appear in public then our only response will be to direct you to the relevant resource).

If you wish to make an enquiry about data held by the School which does not seem to be already available, then please either write directly to the relevant individual or unit of the School, if known. This can be by letter, fax or email. If the holder of the information is unknown, please write to the Archivist & Records Manager at the School address or foi@lshtm.ac.uk. We will then instigate a search for the information you need. Please note:

(i) where the information you request is already routinely published by the School (or some other public body) then we will provide you with guidance on how to find this information, rather than the information itself.

(ii) if you wish to obtain personal information relating to yourself then we may need to ask for a more detailed request from you (please see the Subject Access request form, which is appended here/enclosed).

(iii) there may be a fee for this service; if there is a fee, we shall contact you as soon as possible to inform you of the amount.

(iv) the School will usually respond to your request within 20 working days.

(v) please specify clearly all the information you require: we will make all reasonable efforts to locate this information, though we may need to ask you to provide more detail if your original application does not allow us to identify exactly what you want. If you require advice on how to specify your needs, please contact the Archivist & Records Manager.

(vi) the Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides some limits to your access to information, though the School would only consider withholding information in cases where an exemption legitimately applies. Likely exemptions will include data protection, commercially sensitive information, information provided in confidence and information intended for future publication. If we cannot comply with your request for any reason, we will provide you with a full explanation of the reason(s) for that refusal and details of how to appeal against that decision.

(vii) we will not provide statistical information analysed to any greater level of detail than is normally provided with the School's standard published information.

(viii) if it transpires that the School does not hold the information you have requested then we will write to you to inform you of this. Where possible, we will suggest alternative ways in which you may be able to access the information you require.

(ix) if some/all of the information you request is held by another Public Authority then we will provide what information we can and then consider transferring the request to the relevant Authority. Should we need to transfer your request, you will be informed immediately.

If you need any advice on your request, or are unhappy with our response, please write or email the Archivist & Records Manager at the address shown below:

Archivist & Records Manager
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street
London
WC1E 7HT

foi@lshtm.ac.uk