date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 12:13:00 +0100
from: "Hume Matthew Mr (ACAD)" <Matthew.Hume@uea.ac.uk>
subject: RE: My earlier comments
to: "Jones Philip Prof (ENV)" <P.Jones@uea.ac.uk>

   Hi Phil,



   Yes, I think some kind of disclaimer should be added to all of the Universities staff
   emails; however, it is a hard thing to ensure that everyone is doing it, as I don't think
   ITCS have the capability to do something like that.



   As you can see from my email signature below, REE has a basic form of confidential
   disclaimer, which as a department we decided was the best thing for us.



   But I have to admit that the Atkins disclaimer is much more thorough, thanks for letting me
   see it.



   Thanks

   Matt.



   __________________________________________________________________
   Matthew Hume, Patents & Commercialisation Administrator
   University of East Anglia
   Tel: 01603 591489  |  Fax: 01603 591550

   Email: matthew.hume@uea.ac.uk  |  Web: www.uea.ac.uk/business
   Research, Enterprise & Engagement Office, The Registry, University of East Anglia, Norwich,
   NR4 7TJ.
   University companies registered in England: UEA Enterprises Ltd (Company No. 02626389); UEA
   Consulting Ltd (Company No. 6477521); SYS Consulting Ltd (Company No. 04045713).
   Registered
   Office: The Registry, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
   __________________________________________________________________
   This email may contain privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient please
   notify the sender and delete all copies.
     ______________________________________________________________________________________

   From: Phil Jones [mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk]
   Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:27 AM
   To: Hume Matthew Mr (ACAD)
   Subject: RE: My earlier comments

      Hi Matt,
         Thanks for the thoughts. These people don't have logic as their strong suit. If Dave
      goes down the route you suggest, I think they will come back on UEA for not
      supervising me properly!
        There is another FOI/EIR that has gone to the FOI Commissioner. This one is
      potentially more important as it relates to email correspondence between the authors
      of a chapter in the last IPCC (Intergovernmental Report on Climate Change) Report.
      I think people shouldn't be able to request my emails just because I happen to work
      for a government funded University. Perhaps UEA needs a ruling on requests for our
      emails. Should we all be adding something to our email tails, like some
      companies do.
        Here is an example from an email I got earlier today. We are doing a small bit of
     work for
      Atkins.
      This email and any attached files are confidential and copyright protected. If you are
     not the addressee, any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited.
     Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing, nothing stated in this communication shall
     be legally binding.
     The ultimate parent company of the Atkins Group is WS Atkins plc. Registered in England
     No. 1885586. Registered Office Woodcote Grove, Ashley Road, Epsom, Surrey KT18 5BW. A
     list of wholly owned Atkins Group companies registered in the United Kingdom and
     locations around the world can be found at
     [1]http://www.atkinsglobal.com/terms_and_conditions/index.aspx.
     Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to.
      Cheers
      Phil
     At 09:24 06/08/2009, you wrote:

     Hi Phil,

     My apologies - no offence meant - your comment amused us.

     I know both you & Dave have been coming under a lot of flack from these people, and I
     agree the FOI rules are a pain - unfortunately they are rules we have chosen to abide
     by. Maybe if we charged people for the service of providing this information, which we
     are within our rights to do if the level of work involved to put the requested info
     together is such that it inhibits our normal everyday work, then I think we would
     probably get less people trying to gather this kind of information.

     Myself, and the REE office, totally support you and your right to protect your research
     - especially when it is questioned by people who's intentions are so antagonistic and
     destructive. And I surmised that these people are trying to gather information that you
     / the university has agreed to keep confidential. Maybe by showing these people that we
     remove that responsibility for this out of your control - i.e. that you were not the
     person who signed these agreements; but they were signed on behalf of the University;
     then they will have to re-think about contesting them?

     I passed another paragraph onto Dave last night. This is from the employment contracts
     that all staff agree to when working here:

     "Members of the ATR/ATS Staff shall not, in connection with any invention, patent,
     process or manufacture, have authority to make representations on behalf of the
     University, or to enter into any contract or to be concerned in any transactions on
     behalf of the University whatsoever without the express consent of the Council."

     It may or may not be appropriate to answer the question posed; but hopefully Dave will
     be able to make something with it.

     If I can be of any more help, please feel free to ask.

     Regards
     Matt.
         _______________________________________________________________________________

          From: Phil Jones [[2] mailto:p.jones@uea.ac.uk]
          Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 4:58 PM
          To: Hume Matthew Mr (ACAD)
          Subject: My earlier comments
           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
          X-MS-Has-Attach:
          X-MS-TNEF-Correlator:
          acceptlanguage: en-US, en-GB
          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 ([3]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:
                      [4]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 [ [5]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 it's 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 [ [6]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
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

