Government to implement university free speech law

The government has confirmed plans to reintroduce a piece of legislation aimed at protecting free speech on university campuses.

The Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, which proposed fines for universities 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.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Parliament the government would be progressing with the legislation but with significant changes.

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 the education secretary 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 told the BBC 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Phillipson told Parliament in July that the delay would allow time to consider whether the law would be repealed.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 brought back.

In a statement, Phillipson said academic freedom was "much more important than the wishes of some students not to be offended".

However, the government says it will seek to remove the part of the act that allows people to sue universities that fail to uphold their duty to protect freedom of speech.

It could result in long and costly legal battles, at a time when many universities were already struggling financially, the government said.

There will also no longer be direct responsibility on student unions under the law, though Phillipson said they would still be expected to support free speech and held to account by their university.

The National Union of Students welcomed the announcement, saying the threat of complex legal responsibilities was no longer hanging over them.

The OfS would retain powers to investigate alleged breaches of free speech under the law, the government said, as well as issuing fines.

Shadow education secretary Laura Trott described the changes as a "wrecking ball" to the policy, and questioned what the consequences would be for universities alleged to have breached their free speech duties with the threat of legal action removed.

But the government said it would provide a workable version of the act that would protect minority groups while defending freedom of speech on campuses.

The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) welcomed the revised act, saying it "takes into account the concerns raised by UJS and other parties".

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents 140 higher education providers, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier in the day that academic freedom and freedom of speech were "essential" to universities and she was glad the legislation was coming back.

But some of the original provisions in the act would "gum up the works like you wouldn't believe" for universities, she said.

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.

The education secretary said there had been too many such examples of freedom of speech not being upheld at universities and "unacceptable" cases like that of Prof Jo Phoenix, who was found by an employment tribunal to have been discriminated against and harassed at work because of her gender-critical beliefs.

But Prof Phoenix told BBC News the revised version of the act was like a "toothless tiger" and the suppression of free speech still posed a "real and visceral threat to the robustness of our universities".

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