Declaration of Interests (DoI)

The system

The Declaration of Interests (DoI) System has two parts:

1. An online form for people to record their interests in different categories
2. A Microsoft Teams app for reviewers that allows each interest to be reviewed and a declaration recorded.

Together they form a complete historical record of what interests were declared, how they were mitigated and when this happened.
 

The process

1. Declaration

Heads of Institutions, plus members and regular attendees of the University’s principal, central decision-making bodies, are required to declare any personal, financial or other interests (and/or those of their close personal contacts) which constitute existing or potential conflicts with their University duties annually via the online declaration of interests (DoI) form. Declarations from the previous academic year are carried forward, so declarers just need to make any necessary amendments or additions to bring their record up-to-date.

2. Mitigation

Once all the declarers have completed the DoI form, their declarations are turned into a workflow that creates items to be reviewed and mitigations recorded by the appropriate reviewer(s) (for example, the Chair or Secretary of the relevant committee or the Head of Secretary of the relevant School, or their nominated delegate). The items are made available for review in the 'Approvals' app in Microsoft Teams. 

In addition, there is a ’live’ report that shows all the declarations which is available in a Teams Channel. For further help see Viewing your register.

3. Confirmation

When all the mitigations have been completed, a summary document (PDF) of their declared interests and the associated mitigating actions is sent to each declarer for information.

4. Updates

The process is repeated annually, but new or amended interests that occur during the year are addressed as they arise by the same process.