date: Wed Aug  5 16:58:21 2009
from: Phil Jones <p.jones@uea.ac.uk>
subject: My earlier comments
to: matthew.hume@uea.ac.uk

    Hi Matt,
       My comments were tongue in cheek! The agreements that we're talking about
    are not really confidentiality agreements that you're talking about. Lots are
    unwritten agreements that we make scientist to scientist. Where there are
    written agreements they are signed between me (or previous Director's
    of CRU) with other academic institutions, which were not with their
    central administration (but again a sub part).  CRU doesn't initiate these,
    but if the other side wants it and it will help us do some work then we go
    ahead and sign.  There is never any obligation on CRU or UEA. They are generally
    about agreeing to work together on something.
        The agreements Dave is talking about are ones that relate to us not
    making climate data available to third parties, which we have got from a
    National Met Service.
       FOI is causing us a lot of problems in CRU and even more for Dave, as he has
    to respond to them all.
      It would be good if UEA went along with any other Universities who might be
    lobbying to remove academic research activities from FOI.  FOI is having an
    impact on my research productivity. I also write references for people leaving
    CRU, students and others. If I have to write a poor one, I make sure I get
    the truth to the recipient in a phone call.  I'm also much less helpful responding
    to members of the public who email CRU regularly than I was 2-3 years ago.
    I've seen some of what I considered private and frank emails appear on websites.
    Issue here is blogsites have allowed these climate change deniers to find one
    another around the world.
    Cheers
    Phil

     From: "Palmer Dave Mr (LIB)" <David.Palmer@uea.ac.uk>
     To: "Jones Philip Prof (ENV)" <P.Jones@uea.ac.uk>, "Colam-French Jonathan Mr
      (ISD)" <s119@uea.ac.uk>, "Mcgarvie Michael Mr (ACAD)" <k364@uea.ac.uk>,
             "Ogden Annie Ms (MAC)" <k319@uea.ac.uk>
     Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 15:32:05 +0100
     Subject: FW: FOI/EIR request [FOI_09-69]
     Thread-Topic: FOI/EIR request [FOI_09-69]
     Thread-Index: AcoVvf08n/gEgJXORxOdPEoiA9w3TgAFFk3wAABnriAAAPaKIAAAOeMg
     Accept-Language: en-US, en-GB
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     X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Aug 2009 14:32:07.0233 (UTC) FILETIME=[82575B10:01CA15D9]
     Folks,
     In response to one of Phil's earlier emails regarding any policies regarding entering
     into confidentiality agreements etc, I sent a query to REE to determine what relevant
     information they might have... and received the below response to which I have responded
     as you can see...

     This does present something of a 'issue' in terms of drafting a response and dealing
     with any potential follow up request/query regarding our practices in this regard.  I
     wonder if whether said policy was in force at the time the agreements were entered into
     would be a way around this... the request is for current policies clearly.... I will
     enquire further with Matt Hume....

     Cheers, Dave
       ___________________________________________________________________________________

     From: Palmer Dave Mr (LIB)
     Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 3:23 PM
     To: Hume Matthew Mr (ACAD)
     Cc: Walker Alan Dr (ACAD)
     Subject: RE: FOI/EIR request [FOI_09-69]
     Matt,
     Thanks very much for this... You have given me a bit of a conundrum on how to respond
     but we do at least have something to work with....
     What policy are you actually quoting from and is it publicly available? As the request
     was for the entire policy, is there any issue with making the policy publicly
     available?  If the policy in regards confidentiality agreements is within a larger
     document with unrelated material, I am happy to quote but I do think we will need to
     provide a proper citation...

     Cheers, Dave
         _______________________________________________________________________________

          From: Hume Matthew Mr (ACAD)
          Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 3:16 PM
          To: Palmer Dave Mr (LIB)
          Cc: Walker Alan Dr (ACAD)
          Subject: RE: FOI/EIR request [FOI_09-69]
          Hi Dave,

          We all just had a very good laugh at Phil's comment "We do sometime ignore the
          Registry advice"... If this is going to have the kind of publicity that you suggest,
          I would prefer if you do not quote ANY of his answer to question 1.

          The UEA actually has a very strict policy on entering into confidentiality
          agreements, however as Phil so blithely admits, a handful of academics take it upon
          themselves to foul things up!

          As you will note from points 1 & 2 of our policy; no UEA employee, except members of
          our office, has the right to sign anything on behalf of the university - the problem
          is that funders/other parties can be sneaky by sending the agreement in the name of
          the academic.

          Our policy is:-
          Someone from the Commercialisation & Enterprise Team should approve and sign all
          Confidentiality Agreements:
          only our staff have the legal authority to sign agreements on behalf of the
          University
          all agreements should be between the University of East Anglia and the party
          requesting the agreement (not an individual academic or school)
          we will negotiate with the other party on any issues within the document that may be
          contentious
          by doing this we will ensure you the best protection of your IP rights
          (In special circumstances, authorisation may be obtained from the Commercialisation
          & Enterprise Team allowing you to sign the agreement yourself.  Such authorisation
          must always be obtained in advance, will only be valid for a specific instance, and
          the standard university agreement must be used without amendment - unless we have
          authorised an amendment)

          In all cases, a copy of the fully signed confidentiality agreement must be retained
          in our office.


          FYI - we are currently finishing off the final touches to our new intranet pages -
          there will be a page on CDA's with this info on it.

          Also, I am away on holiday next week (10th -14th), so if you do any more info on our
          policy regarding agreements etc, please contact Anne Donaldson, one of our
          Commercialisation Managers ([1]a.donaldson@uea.ac.uk).

          Thanks
          Matt.

              _________________________________________________________________________

                From: Palmer Dave Mr (LIB)
                Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 2:47 PM
                To: Hume Matthew Mr (ACAD)
                Cc: Walker Alan Dr (ACAD)
                Subject: FW: FOI/EIR request [FOI_09-69]
                Importance: High
                Matt,
                Please note Phil Jones' response to question 1 below - would REE have anything
                that would be relevant to this request?

                A bit of context - in response to a rejection of a request for data, we have
                received over 50 requests for agreements, data and a combination thereof in
                relation to data sets that CRU maintains/holds.  This is pretty high profile
                and has been noted in blogs in the Guardian and Telegraph as well as in the
                source of all of this (see: [2]http://www.climateaudit.org).  Be assure that
                whatever we state in response to this request is likely to be on the web,
                shared and very public within hours of sending....

                We have a request from another individual exactly the same as below so there
                will be multiple recipients of the answer we give.

                Our deadline for a response is 21 August but as I'm on hols commencing 17
                August, the 'effective' deadline is 14 August.

                Cheers, Dave
                  _________________________________________________________________________

                From: Phil Jones [[3]mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk]
                Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 12:15 PM
                To: Palmer Dave Mr (LIB); Colam-French Jonathan Mr (ISD); Ogden Annie Ms
                (MAC); Mee Andrew Mr (CSED)
                Cc: Whitehead Steve Mr (FIN)
                Subject: Re: FW: FOI/EIR request [FOI_09-69]
                 Dave,
                    A few responses inline
                 Cheers
                 Phil
                At 11:52 05/08/2009, Palmer Dave Mr (LIB) wrote:

                Folks,
                The next 'other' request relating the the CRU agreements & data.

                The first part of the query will be answered in line with the answer given to
                other requesters for the agreements.

                In regards the second part, I will need some assistance as noted below

                1. A copy of  policies and procedures regarding employee responsibilities
                regarding entering into confidentiality agreements. <?xml:namespace prefix = o
                ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
                Steve, do we have any contracting policy on this? Phil - anything with CRU on
                responsibilities regarding entering agreements on behalf of CRU? I don't think
                we wish to state that we don't have any policies or procedures in place, but
                I'm not sure what to actually put here...
                 I don't think there is anything - if there is I've never seen it.  People in
                CRU (not just me) enter into
                 agreements about data and/or writing papers and getting involved in projects.
                UEA signs research
                 contracts for us. UEA employees do the work, but UEA administers the grant.
                The various
                 agreements that UEA signs may say things about data access, but it will vary
                depending on
                 the funding body. Some are more stringent than others. The Registry goes
                through these.
                 They mostly help the researchers by not letting ourselves sign away any
                rights and IPR. We
                 do sometime ignore the Registry advice, preferring to fall back on the verbal
                agreements we
                 have with the funders (their project officer). If we ever have a problem, we
                probably wouldn't
                 work with them again. This has happened with some scientists I have
                collaborated with in the past.

                2. A copy of  policies and procedures regarding employee responsibilities
                regarding the preservation of written agreements.
                Ah, records management rears its head.We have a general statement on our
                website regarding our responsibilities for RM but we do lack any overarching
                records retention schedule or policy Phil, does CRU have anything in-house?
                 CRU has nothing in this regard.

                3. A copy of  policies and procedures regarding employees entering into verbal
                agreements.
                See question 1; same issue here although more likely to have a nil response
                here consequences of that?
                  As said in the 2 pager we're working on, we put some of the agreements in
                the letters we
                 wrote to Met Services requesting data (some of which we paid for).
                 There has been a lot of time and effort gone into making these contacts. It
                seems as
                 though this counts for nothing.
                 Again - unlikely to be anything.  People agree things with other academics at
                meetings.
                 This is how science works.

                4. A copy of instructions to staff regarding compliance with FOI requests.
                We have web guidance that can be referred to, and a brochure that I distribute
                that could go here. and a statement regarding the training on offer
                 I'm not sure you want to go down this route!


                Cheers, Dave

                  _________________________________________________________________________

                From: steven mosher [ [4]mailto:moshersteven@gmail.com]
                Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 8:16 PM
                To: Palmer Dave Mr (LIB)
                Subject: FOI/EIR request

Dear Mr. Palmer:



                Pursuant to the Environmental Information Regulations, I hereby request
                the following information in respect to any confidentiality agreements
                affecting CRUTEM station data involving station data in  NIGERIA,
                NETHERLANDS, NORWAY, NEPAL,NAURU
                1. the date of such agreement;
                2. the parties to the agreement;
                3. a copy of that part of the agreement that prevents further
                transmission
                of the data to non-academics or others
                4. a copy of the entire
                agreement

In addition, I hereby request the following


                information:

1. A copy of  policies and procedures regarding employee


                responsibilities regarding entering into confidentiality
                agreements.

2. A copy of  policies and procedures regarding employee


                responsibilities regarding the preservation of written
                agreements.

3. A copy of  policies and procedures regarding employees


                entering into verbal
                agreements.

4. A copy of instructions to staff regarding compliance with FOI


                requests.

I am requesting this information as part of my academic research.



                Thank you for your attention,
                Steven M. Mosher
                Prof. Phil Jones
                Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
                School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
                University of East Anglia
                Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
                NR4 7TJ
                UK

                ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Prof. Phil Jones
     Climatic Research Unit        Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
     School of Environmental Sciences    Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
     University of East Anglia
     Norwich                          Email    p.jones@uea.ac.uk
     NR4 7TJ
     UK
     ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

