Universities UK – Changing the culture: sharing personal data in harassment cases

As part of our Code of Practice, we guide universities to take prevention of sexual misconduct and harassment seriously, but when the worst happens, we also need universities to have procedures in place that place the victims welfare as paramount.

This isn't always the case and with none disclosure agreements rife and and sometimes no policies or procedures in place, universities can make the situation for the victim worse.

Universities UK have launched new sector guidance, to increase understanding around 'when it is appropriate to share personal data when managing harassment complaints.'

This is something that is definitely needed as a first step, especially when it may prevent perpetrators moving on to a new institution without a blemish on their record, as protecting and supporting the victim should always be more important than protecting data.

We have worked with The 1752 Group and Georgina Calvert- Lee to build our code of practice, and it is great to see they were part of the overall working group for the guidelines, lets hope this step in the right direction, is just the first, and the further recommendations from 1752, used to build and improve the guidance. You can read the Universities UK Guidance here.