Phillipson plans wholesale changes to ‘make free speech act work’

Heavily debated legislation intended to help protect free speech and academic freedom at English universities has finally been given the go-ahead, albeit with several of its key elements stripped out or revised. 

Students’ unions will no longer be directly subject to the new law, while education secretary Bridget Phillipson has confirmed she intends to remove from the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act a “statutory tort” that would have allowed complaints about free speech violations to be taken to the courts. 

Such grievances will still be heard by the Office for Students (OfS), but Phillipson has also signalled she intends to reform the scheme that will be run by the regulator, with students no longer able to use it. 

Phillipson announced the changes as part of efforts to ensure the act does not overburden universities after institutions raised fears about “vexatious” claims. Since pausing the commencement of the act last July, the minister has repeatedly said the legislation in its current form – designed by the previous Conservative administration – was unworkable in part because, she said, it could have encouraged harassment of vulnerable groups. 

“Academic freedom matters, freedom of speech matters and we will preserve those two pillars of national strength. But we will proceed in a way that actually works,” Phillipson told the House of Commons.

More to follow.