Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary for Education, what steps she is taking to help protect free speech on university campuses.

This government fully supports freedom of speech and academic freedom. Higher education (HE) must be a space for robust discussion and intellectual rigour. This is enshrined within the existing legislation, whereby universities have a legal obligation to protect lawful freedom of speech, and protections for free speech are also set out in the requirements in the Office for Students’ Regulatory Framework.

In addition, the government took the decision to pause implementation of further parts of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act because it wants to consider the impact of the Act and make sure that it effectively protects freedom of speech.

The department is continuing to meet with a full range of stakeholders, including academics with concerns about constraints on freedom of speech. This will feed into decision making on the future of the Act and this government’s longer-term policy on protecting freedom of speech across the HE sector.