Prevent - University registers of research and 'firewalls'
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;
Dear applicant
Thank you for your information request dated the 15^th October 2018
regarding Prevent. Your request has been handled under our own country’s
legislation: the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Our responses are in red below for ease of reference. If you require any
further information, please do not hesitate in contacting us directly via
[1][Heriot-Watt University request email]
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Finally, should you wish to discuss the contents of this email, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards
Information Governance Team
Governance and Legal Services
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh Campus
Riccarton
Edinburgh EH14 4AS
[5]E-mail Signature - HWU - YoftheSea - IYOTY
Hello,
Thank you for your reply. However, there does not appear to be an answer to a number of the questions (below). Please advise
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
Yours sincerely,
Ben Quinn
Dear applicant
Apologies for the delay in responding to your clarification email dated
the 6th November 2018.
Just to confirm that in response to Q3, we have had no such incidences
over the period requested and so this information is exempt from release
under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002:
Information not held (FOISA).
In response to Q4, as mentioned in our original reply, should this
situation arise in the future, such materials should in no circumstances
be kept on personal computer equipment. Instead, such materials should be
kept on specially designated University servers at our Scottish campuses
to allow ease of access to authorised researchers, yet not in a manner
that would allow such materials to be transmitted or exchanged to
non-authorised parties.
In response to your 5^th question, as no such situation have arisen and so
this information is exempt from release under Section 17 of FOISA. Should
incidences arise in the future, then each incident will be looked at on a
case by case basis.
We hope this clarifies the information provided.
Kind regards
FOISA Team
Information Governance
Governance and Legal Services
Heriot-Watt University
Edinburgh Campus
Riccarton
Edinburgh EH14 4AS
[1]E-mail Signature - HWU - YoftheSea - IYOTY
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