The act said universities had a duty to “secure” and “promote the importance” of freedom of speech and academic expression. …reports Asian Lite News
The government is expected to reactivate a piece of legislation aimed at protecting free speech on university campuses.
The Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, which could have seen universities fined for failing to uphold freedom of speech, was passed under the previous, Conservative government in 2023.
But its implementation was stopped shortly after Labour’s election win last summer over concerns the law was potentially damaging to student welfare. A government source has said the legislation is now being recommenced to make it workable.
The act said universities had a duty to “secure” and “promote the importance” of freedom of speech and academic expression.
It included controversial new powers in which the regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), would have been able to fine or sanction higher education providers and student unions in England. A new complaints scheme for students, staff and visiting speakers was also included. They could seek compensation if they suffered from a breach of a university’s free-speech obligations.
However last July Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson paused the law, days before it was due to come into force, over fears it could protect people using hate speech on campuses and expose universities to expensive legal action.
At the time, a government source said the legislation would have opened the way for Holocaust deniers to be allowed on campus, and was an “antisemite charter”. Phillipson told Parliament in July that the delay would allow time to consider whether the law would be repealed.
Having spent the last six months considering what to do, the act is now being reactivated. Precisely how its provisions will differ is not clear, but a government source said academic freedom mattered more than students not being offended, and there would be a proper complaints process in place.
When the legislation was originally introduced, then-Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said it would allow speakers to “articulate views which others may disagree with as long as they don’t meet the threshold of hate speech or inciting violence”. Protests have taken place on university campuses in recent years, including before a talk by gender-critical academic Kathleen Stock at Oxford.
There have also been cases of individuals being “no-platformed”, where a controversial speaker is banned from an event.
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