Library and information associations press for changes to Terrorism Bill

14 December, 2005

Thirteen UK bodies representing the library and information field have been pressing the case for changes to the Terrorism Bill.

While expressing its general support for the aims of the Terrorism Bill, the UK library and information community harbours grave concerns relating to the unintended consequences of the Bill for libraries and their users.

SCONUL, with the other bodies listed below, believes that there is danger of criminalisation of libraries and librarians while they carry out their legitimate public duties to collect and disseminate information.

The Bill makes distributing a terrorist publication an offence. But what constitutes a terrorist publication is broadly defined, and librarians could commit the offence unintentionally. They would then be presumed guilty unless they could prove that a statutory defence applied to them.

In the House of Lords on 7 December the Government promised to improve the defences available to librarians. We are grateful for that improvement but remain convinced that unintended consequences of circulating a publication should not give rise to a criminal offence. We seek an amendment to clause 2 to ensure that intention is part of the definition of the offence

The library bodies united in the campaign are:

The British Library
British and Irish Association of Law Librarians
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles
Library and Information Services Council, Northern Ireland
Museums Libraries and Archives Council
National Library of Scotland
National Library of Wales
Research Information Network
Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries
Scottish Library and Information Council
Society of Chief Librarians
Society of College, National and University Libraries