Reporting an incident
Why report an incident?
The main reason for submitting a report is so that you can access advice and support.
More generally, we want to foster a culture where sexual violence and harassment are not tolerated and where everyone can go about their business in safety.
You have a lot of control over the confidentiality of any report you make, as well as any actions that might come from it.
What happens when you report an incident
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If you submit a report with your name and details
If you submit a report and give your name, a trained member of staff from Student & Academic Services will contact you and discuss the options or actions that are available to you. These might include:
- informal advice
- further informal investigations by Student & Academic Services staff
- counselling
- pursuing an internal complaint
- or reporting to an external authority such as the police.
If, after talking to the contact in Student & Academic Service, you decide you wish to speak to the police, we can support you to do this.
You have a choice of how we contact you: by phone, email or in-person.
Should you request it, we do our best to find someone who shares your personal characteristics to contact you. For example, someone of the same sex or race.
If you decide to meet with a member of staff in person, you are welcome to bring another student or member of staff along with you.
You have control of the process: At any time after you submit the report, you can decide not to pursue the matters raised any further.
Your personal data: We will ensure that your personal data is held securely.
Confidentiality
Your report and your details will be treated as confidential.
Your details and the details of the report will not be shared with anyone else without your consent.
Some students worry the report or their details might be shared with:
- their supervisor (it won’t)
- their sponsor or funder (it won’t)
- the perpetrator (it won’t)
- anyone they don’t want it to be shared with (it won’t)
Emergency intervention
There is only one circumstance in which we would act on a report without consulting you (although we would still make every effort to). That is if the report discloses information which suggests that the safety of an individual is at imminent risk.
In such a situation, the University may need to take immediate action.
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If you submit a report anonymously
If you submit an anonymous report, we will have no way of knowing who submitted the report, so no one will make contact with you.
Anonymous reports can sometimes help to provide an impression of issues arising in a particular part of the University (for example, in a specific academic unit or service), or across the University as a whole.
In these instances, we might make informal enquiries into the issues identified in the report.
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