Thursday 13-12-2018 - 09:28

At the Student Council Meeting on 10th December 2018, the Council passed a motion to censure Kamal Mohamed (Penrhyn Road and Academic Affairs Officer) and Whaqar Hussain (Roehampton Vale and Union Development Officer) for failing to deliver progress on a data protection breach affecting a number of students.

What is a Censure?

A censure is an expression of severe disapproval against an individual (basically a telling off or slap on the wrist!). Student Council, under Bye-law 16, have the power to censure Full Time Officers or Student Councillors for their performance or actions within their role by a vote of 75% of a quorate meeting. If 2 successful censures are passed against an individual, then an automatic vote of no confidence process shall be triggered.

Motion to Censure
In October 2017, data were collected from students at a Students' Union Society event and was passed on to the University's Prevent Officer. Students were not informed that their data would be handed to the University when this data was collected. Most of the Officers and Students' Union staff were unaware that this incident had occurred. A student uncovered the details of this in September 2018 and asked the Officers to investigate.

The Motion to Censure reads as follows: 

Background/Facts:

1. Officers are the democratic face of the union and trustees of the Union Board and are ultimately responsible for what happens in the Union.
2. The Union Development officer is the chair of the trustee board who is responsible for ensuring the Union is compliant with it’s Constitution, Bye-Laws and laws related to charities such as GDPR.
3. The Academic Affairs officer ran a campaign against stopping the disproportionate targeting of certain students groups through surveillance.
4. Officers started their Job in June and needed a full time student to uncover the fact that data was collected on Students attending at least one Islamic Society event.

Purpose:

1. To make Officers accountable and realise that power and salaries come with responsibilities.
2. To underline that targeting students of certain background is not only against our Union’s Constitution and Bye-Laws but also an incredibly serious issue that must be taken with extreme urgency.
3. The Privacy of individual students is of utmost importance and data should only be used in the way the individual is informed it will be used.

Resolves:

1. To censure the Penrhyn Road and Roehampton Vale Officers
2. For the Union to make a public statement on the website about it including the response from the officers.

Response from Officers

Kamal Mohamed, Penrhyn Road and Academic Affairs Officer said:

“I’m sorry. I think I could have done more. Although I feel I’ve done a lot I didn’t realise the gravity of the task. I should have prioritised this more and pushed for a response. For that I am sorry.

The only task left to do now is to verify if the data has been destroyed. I believe this is incredibly important and I will commit to finding the truth.”

Whaqar Hussain, Roehampton Vale and Union Development Officer said:

"I would like to apologise for the lack of progress on this task. I should have made it an absolute priority and regret not doing so.

I will now work on the final and complete confirmation that there is no current record of the data."

Moving Forward

The Students' Union will now carry out an investigation into this incident and will continue to seek verification that the data has been destroyed. We will provide details of this to the next Student Council meeting in January, and will report progress on this via our website. We will ensure, through changing our policies around Society and Student events, that such an incident never happens again.