Prevent - University registers of research and 'firewalls'

The request was partially successful.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, please provide the following:

1. Your Prevent action plan or any document that outlines your institution’s Prevent policy in line with your obligations under the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015

2. Confirm if students, researchers and members of staff are obliged to register research which is deemed to be security sensitive

3. If such a register exists, the number of entries for each of the years 2018 (up to the date of this request), 2017, 2016 and 2015. By entries, I mean occasions on which individuals have registered research which falls into the category set out in bullet point 2. If possible, please identify the nature of the research (eg PhD, internally funded, externally funded) and topic

4. If such a register exists, confirm whether or not it is stored onsite or on an external server.

5. If such a register exists, confirm whether the register is subject to any information sharing agreements with external partners or agencies including local and regional Prevent coordinators, the Home Office, the local Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit, the local police or any other law enforcement agencies

6. A list of any agreements, arrangements or Memorandums of Understanding between your institution and bodies such as the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), or Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) of the City of London Police, to receive lists of illegal or illicit content, for instance for the purposes of blocking.

7. Confirm if any filtering or blocking service that your institution uses incorporate lists from the IWF, CTIRU or PIPCU, and which lists are incorporated;

foi, Anglia Ruskin University

Dear Ben,

Thank you for your email. Your request is being handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
 
Under the Act, the department is required to provide you with a response within 20 working days. I will write to you in response to your request for information by 12th December.
 
The Freedom of Information Act includes a number of exemptions to releasing information.  Some of these are qualified exemptions which require us to consider whether it is in the public interest to disclose or withhold the information.  In these circumstances we may need more time to consider your request, and if this is the case I will write to you by the date above to inform you of when you can expect to receive a response.

Should we require further clarification of your request to enable us to respond we will be in touch again shortly.      

If you have any queries regarding this request please do not hesitate to contact me, quoting ref: FOI 1557 in all future correspondence.

Kind regards,

Helen

Helen Guy
Information Compliance Officer
(Working days: Tuesday to Thursday)

Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1SQ
| T: +44 (0) 1245 68 4234
| W: www.anglia.ac.uk

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Humphreys, David, Anglia Ruskin University

Dear Ben,
 
Many thanks for your email dated 15^th October.  Please see our response
below:
 
1. Your Prevent action plan or any document that outlines your
institution’s Prevent policy in line with your obligations under the
Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015
[1]https://web.anglia.ac.uk/anet/staff/sec_...
 
2. Confirm if students, researchers and members of staff are obliged to
register research which is deemed to be security sensitive
We interpret these questions as relating to research involving terrorism,
rather than any other research that could be deemed as security-sensitive.
We have focussed on the former accordingly.  Research that is related to
terrorism has to go through a three-stage ethical approval process and be
registered with the Secretary and Clerk’s Office.
 
3. If such a register exists, the number of entries for each of the years
2018 (up to the date of this request), 2017, 2016 and 2015. By entries, I
mean occasions on which individuals have registered research which falls
into the category set out in bullet point 2. If possible, please identify
the nature of the research (eg PhD, internally funded, externally funded)
and topic
We introduced the requirement for research relating to terrorism to be
categorised separately at the beginning of the academic year 2016/17.  To
date, we have three projects registered that relate to terrorism, two of
these being undergraduate projects, which were both given ethical approval
for a year, one in 2017 and the other in 2018.  These studies involved
examining secondary sources. We have a further Doctorate study submitted
for ethical approval, funded by an overseas government, which will involve
primary research.
 
4. If such a register exists, confirm whether or not it is stored onsite
or on an external server.
Ethics committee and Secretary & Clerk’s registers are stored on internal
servers.
 
5. If such a register exists, confirm whether the register is subject to
any information sharing agreements with external partners or agencies
including local and regional Prevent coordinators, the Home Office, the
local Counter Terrorism Intelligence Unit, the local police or any other
law enforcement agencies
Not subject to any information sharing agreements.
 
6. A list of any agreements, arrangements or Memorandums of Understanding
between your institution and bodies such as the Internet Watch Foundation
(IWF), the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) of the
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), or Police Intellectual Property Crime
Unit (PIPCU) of the City of London Police, to receive lists of illegal or
illicit content, for instance for the purposes of blocking.
We are not aware of any contracts/arrangements/MOUs.
 
7.  Confirm if any filtering or blocking service that your institution
uses incorporate lists from the IWF, CTIRU or PIPCU, and which lists are
incorporated;
We use an integrated access control list service, regular updates to which
are provided by the original equipment manufacturers of our firewall
appliances as part of our maintenance agreement with them. Along with
standard filters, the following categories are currently blocked through
these means:
 

* Command and Control;
* Copyright infringement;
* Extremism;
* Malware;
* Phishing.

 
These categories are populated by the firewall vendor from a number of
intelligence sources as well as their own intelligence gathering.
We can confirm from statements on the  websites of organisations named
above that our supplier specifically receives URL information from the
following:
 

* The Internet Watch Foundation;

 
We are unable to confirm if other named organisations also provide URL
information as no statement exists to this effect within the public
domain.
We can confirm that no direct arrangement, agreement or Memorandum of
Understanding exists between Anglia Ruskin University and the named
organisations. This does not exclude the supply of information by them
through our firewall suppliers. 
 
Please do contact me if you have any queries in relation to this response.
 
If you are not satisfied with our response to your request for information
you can contact us to ask for our decision to be reviewed by our
Secretary & Clerk.
       
If you are still not satisfied following this, you can then make an appeal
to the Information Commissioner, who is the statutory regulator for
Freedom of Information.
 
The address is:
 
Office of the Information Commissioner,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Tel: 01625 545700.
Fax: 01625 524 510.
Website: http//www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
 
This completes your request. 
 
Kind regards,
 
Helen
 
Helen Guy
Information Compliance Officer
(Working days: Tuesday to Thursday)
 
Anglia Ruskin University, Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1SQ
| T: +44 (0) 1245 68 4234
| W: [2]www.anglia.ac.uk
 
 

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