Wednesday 2 December 2009

The LMU Student Data Question

"Peter Bottomley (Worthing West): To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the KPMG Report to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) reviewing lessons learned from the London Metropolitan University case,

 (a) whether
     (i) KMPG,
     (ii) HEFCE and
     (iii) his Department

has seen in full the BDO Stoy Hayward review of London Metropolitan University's approach to student records and the level of accuracy of its student-data completions;

 (b) how much money has been
     (A) repaid to HEFCE by the university and
     (B) withheld by HEFCE from the university in relation to the matter and

 (c) whether the Secretary of State has been informed of active or dormant legal restraints on making public
     (1) the BDO Stoy Hayward review and
     (2) the redacted parts of the KPMG review."

Written Questions for Answer on Monday 30 November 2009 - Question 5 (303384)



Section 15 of the Defamation Act 1996 gives qualified privilege to "A fair and accurate report of proceedings in public of a legislature anywhere in the world", which includes the United Kingdom Parliament. This means that provided a statement is made without malice defamation proceedings will not succeed provided the publisher does not refuse a request 'to publish in a suitable manner a reasonable letter or statement by way of explanation or contradiction'.




The quote is taken the Parliament.uk website but I have added line breaks and indentation where appropriate and made similar formatting changes.

No comments: