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Terrorism Bill

I rise to speak briefly to Amendments Nos. 21, 45 and 83. While I acknowledge that they may have some technical deficiencies, they are supported by the Association of University Teachers and Universities UK, in which I declare an interest as chief executive. Like other speakers, I want to probe the effect of Clauses 1, 2 and 6 on the work of universities and libraries. Clause 1 has been substantially improved by government amendment to insert the notion of intent. I understand from what my noble friend on the Front Bench said on Monday that we can expect a further improvement to that clause in the form of an amendment to remove subjective recklessness. Clause 6 will be vastly improved if the Committee accepts government Amendment No. 79, which will remove the notion of suspicion. I believe also that what the Minister proposes for Clause 2, widening the defence in subsection (9), will likewise constitute an improvement. I await the text of the government amendments before being able to pass judgment on whether they will solve the problems that have been identified in these clauses, but I am confident that we are moving in the right direction. I thank the Minister for her willingness to consider constructive solutions. So I find myself in the rather odd position of not quite knowing whether the amendments before the Committee are necessary. However, at least they provide us with an opportunity to probe the Government a little further on the improvements my noble friend has indicated that she will make. The intention behind these amendments is to put beyond doubt the question of whether an academic or a librarian, acting in the normal course of teaching and research, will be protected from the unintended consequences of the Bill. The fear, expressed by many academics and their representative bodies, is that academics and librarians, worried about the consequences of teaching or publishing sensitive material, will effectively engage in self-censorship—what the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, called the ““chilling effect””. That would be a very unfortunate consequence. The Minister has already given a helpful general reassurance that teaching, research and associated activities are not intended to be caught by the Bill. However, perhaps I may follow some of the questions put by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, and ask my noble friend whether she can give a specific reassurance that, for example, an academic teaching political science would safely be able to hand his students a manuscript of a statement made by Osama bin Laden praising the actions of those involved in the World Trade Centre attack if it was his intention to ask his students to consider the rhetorical techniques used by bin Laden to achieve his political ends as part of a course of study. Would it make a difference if the lecturer was aware that the statement in question could have an incentivising effect on some individuals, but that he had no specific knowledge that any member of his lecture group fell into that category, or could he be regarded as ““reckless””? Would an academic studying the recent attacks on London be protected from the offence in Clause 1 if he included in a paper a quotation from a radical group praising the actions of the bombers as part of an analysis of those events? Will librarians safely be able to include in their collections books—in one meeting the Anarchist’s Cookbook was mentioned in this context—that could be useful to terrorists? How is a librarian to know whether he may include in the collection, or make available for loan, a book which reproduces statements that glorify terrorism? How is a librarian to judge whether such a book contains information that is,"““wholly or mainly for the purpose of being useful to terrorists””?" I realise that the Government may not want to accept the amendments. I shall listen carefully to the arguments put by other noble Lords and to the Minister’s response because I would like us all to be certain that the Bill will not tie the hands of those working in our academic and library communities who do so much to help us combat terrorism by enhancing our understanding of its causes, methods and motivations.