BY EMAIL

Ref. UH/RFI/001156

Dear Mr Benson
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
Following your request for information from 26 April 2010, please see the
University s response below.
Q1. Does your institution provide any information or advice to students
or staff on any potential liability under Terrorism legislation which might
result from accessing materials for teaching or research? If so please provide
copies of any documents held which detail or refer to such information or
advice.

The University does provide guidance but in more general terms than through a
specific Policy. The University has a number of Policies on Data access and
security which can be found on our website, the most useful ones relating to
your request are as follows:
Internet/ Intranet based information systems -
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/secreg/upr/IM04.htm
Learning Resources - http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/secreg/upr/SA12.htm
(specifically section 4. Conditions applying to Access and Use)
Q2. Does your institution have any kind of procedure to review or assess
reading lists, module descriptors or other teaching materials which explicitly
or in practice considers questions of safety and risk under terrorism
legislation as part of its remit? For example does the institution have anything
similar or analogous to the 'module review process' established at Nottingham
University? If so please supply full details of this policy and procedure and
advise when and how it was decided upon and implemented.
All of our course materials are in the public domain; this acts as a safety
mechanism. No student would be presented with materials that he or she could not
access before the module started. All details relating to courses are available
on our website here: http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/home.cfm
We have a number of processes and procedures for ensuring Academic Quality but
no one which is specifically related to Terrorism. Our Academic Quality Policy
is available here: http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/secreg/upr/AS17.htm

Q3 Does your institution have any system, policy or procedure in place

for dealing with any potential actions taken by the authorities against the
institution, its students or staff under Terrorism legislation ? If so please
supply a copy of the policy and advise the date it was decided upon and
implemented.

We have considered your response and in the light of this advice our response is
to neither confirm or deny that the information is held in relation to Section
23(3) Information Supplied by, or concerning, Certain Security Bodies; Section
24(2) National Security; Section 31(3) Law Enforcement and Section 38(2) Health
and Safety. We have taken into account the advice issued by ACPO in relation to
previous requests relating to terrorism activity.
The University of Hertfordshire neither confirms nor denies that it holds any of
the information requested. To give a statement of the reasons why neither
confirming nor denying is appropriate in this case could itself involve the
disclosure of exempt information. The University of Hertfordshire has
determined that the public interest in maintaining the exclusion of the duty to
neither confirm nor deny outweighs the public interest in confirming whether or
not information is held.
This should not be taken as confirmation or denial that the University of
Hertfordshire does or does not hold information requested.
Q4 Does your institution have any system, policy or procedure in place
for preventing violent extremism as recommended for example in the government
guidance document Promoting Good Campus Relations
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tna/+/http://www.dius.gov.uk/publicati
ons/extremismhe.pdf.
Please indicate what procedures or policy exist and advise when it was decided
upon and implemented, and provide copies of any documents held which detail or
refer to such policy or procedures.

The University is in receipt of the guidance referred to in your question and we

constantly encourage good campus relations and work with the University of
Hertfordshire s Student Union on this. In response to your request for policies,
procedures etc. we believe a response is exempt for the reasons quoted in Q3
above.
You may find it useful to read our Freedom of Speech Policy, available here:
http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/secreg/upr/EQ04.htm
I hope this sufficiently answers your information request.
Should you wish to appeal about the way your request was handled please email
foi-request@herts.ac.uk or write to me at the above address and it will be dealt
with by our internal appeals process. Alternatively you can contact the
Information Commissioner at
http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/freedom_of_information.aspx or write to:FOI/EIR
Complaints Resolution, Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire,
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely

Abigail Tomlinson
Records Manager
University of Hertfordshire
Rm B203, Main Building,
College Lane Campus, Hatfield AL10 9AB
Tel. 01707 285264
email. a.tomlinson@herts.ac.uk
www.herts.ac.uk