The Royal Academy of Music has adopted the model publication scheme for higher education. Information is available under the following headings:

Who we are and what we do

Legal framework

How the institution is organised

Terms of Reference of Key Committees: available on request

Location and contact details

Student activities

What we spend and how we spend it

Funding / income

Financial statements, budgets and variance reports

  • Details of expenditure over £25,000: available on request
  • Revenue budgets and budgets for capital expenditure: available on request
  • Financial audit reports: available on request
  • Capital programme: available on request

Financial regulations and procedures

Staff pay and grading structures

Pay multiple for 2017/18 = 4.5 - for more information please see Financial Statements

  • Pay multiple: available on request

Procurement and tender procedures and reports

  • Contracts that exceed £25,000: available on request
  • Research funding: available on request

What our priorities are and how we are doing

Annual report, corporate and business plans

Teaching and learning strategy, academic quality and standards

External and Internal Audit; Review of Information

  • Reports from the Governing Body and Finance and General Purposes Committee: available on request

Government and regulatory reports

  • External Auditor’s Statement: available on request

Compliance with duties under the equality act 2010

How we make decisions

Governing body

  • Minutes of Academic Board: available on request

Our policies and procedures

Procedures and policies relating to academic services

Procedures and policies relating to student services

  • Procedures and policies relating to human resources: available on request
  • Pay policy statement: available on request

Procedures and policies relating to recruitment

  • Code of conduct for members of governing bodies: available on request

Equality and diversity policies including equality scheme

Estate management

  • Estate Management Strategy: Currently under review

Complaints report

Records management and personal data policies

Research policy and strategy

  • Research Committee minutes: available on request
  • Research Strategy: available on request
  • Research Excellence Framework (REF): available on request
  • Publicly funded research outputs and data: available on request

Charging regimes and policies

  • FOI Publication Scheme Charges Policy: see below.

Lists and registers

CCTV

Disclosure logs

  • Register of staff interests: available on request
  • Register of gifts and hospitality provided to senior staff: available on request
  • Senior staff’s declaration of interests: available on request

The services we offer

Individual requests

Individual requests for information not included on the publication scheme should be made in writing to:

David Piper
Management Information Co-ordinator
Academic Secretariat
Royal Academy of Music
Marylebone Road
London
NW1 5HT

Alternatively, please email foi@ram.ac.uk

We aim to respond to individual requests within 20 working days.

Charges

Publications are free, unless otherwise stated. Where hard copy information is provided photocopies may be charged at 20p per sheet and postage charged if in excess of £5. Publications may also be made available in alternative formats by special request, but a charge may be made to cover production costs.

Charges may also apply, or requests refused, if the estimated cost of responding to your request exceeds £450; see ‘Refusing a request’ below.

Refusing a request

The Freedom of Information Act includes exemptions which allow authorities to refuse a request for information. These are listed below, with more information being available from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website: www.ico.gov.uk. If the Royal Academy of Music refuses your request we will provide detail of which exemption applies and why it is being applied.

Absolute exemptions

Information does not have to be released when it is:

  • accessible by other means;
  • intended for future publication; or
  • information supplied to, or relating to:
  • bodies dealing with security matters;
  • court records;
  • parliamentary privilege;
  • personal information*;
  • information provided in confidence;
  • information whose disclosure is prohibited by law.

Request for access to personal information are considered under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.

Qualified exemptions

These are exemptions whereby the Academy to may refuse to disclose information. In order to decide whether the exemption applies, we will consider whether the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

Other reasons for refusing a request

There is a clause within the Freedom of Information Act which allows authorities not to respond if the cost to the institution is £450 or more. This cost, referred to in the act as the ‘appropriate limit’ is based on the following:

  • determining whether our authority holds the information;
  • locating the information, or a document which may contain it;
  • retrieving the information, or a document which may contain it; and
  • extracting the information from a document containing it.

If the cost of above exceeds the appropriate limit the Academy has the right to either refuse the request or to offer to respond in return for a fee representing the full cost of answering the request.