University Free Speech Bill Set to Become Law After Clearing Final Hurdle in House of Lords

A graduation ceremony at the University of Suffolk's campus in Ipswich, England, in October 2015. (PA)

The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is set to become law after it was accepted by the House of Lords on Wednesday.

The bill—introduced in Parliament in May 2021—will require universities and colleges to defend free speech and help stamp out unlawful “silencing.”

The Office for Students (OfS), the higher education regulator in England, would have the power to impose fines on institutions if they breached this condition.

Academics, students, or visiting speakers will be able to seek compensation through the courts if they suffer loss from a breach of the free speech duties.

For the first time, students’ unions at universities would be required to take steps to secure lawful freedom of speech for members and visiting speakers.

Undated file photo of the UK's Houses of Parliament in London. (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Following the Lords’ acceptance of the bill, education minister Claire Coutinho wrote on Twitter: “University should be a place where students and academics can debate controversial ideas without fear or favour. If not there, then where?”

She added, “We cannot accept a culture where visiting speakers are no-platformed, academics are hounded out of their jobs, and where self-censorship narrows the terms of debate.”

‘Practical Steps’

The minister said the bill contains “practical steps to protect freedom of speech on campus.”

“The bill creates a Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom within the Office for Students, who will promote freedom of speech and diversity of thought on campus—and will take firm action if universities fail in their duties to do the same.

“Students and staff will have access to a free OfS complaints process, overseen by the Director, to seek compensation if they feel their free speech rights have been wrongly impinged. And, crucially, we have stood firm on their ability to go to court where needed.”

She said the bill is already having an impact on freedom of speech on campus even before becoming law.

“I’ve heard from academics that vice-chancellors are already revising their free speech guidance in advance of the bill becoming law. At every stage of the bill, we’ve held academics and students at the forefront of our minds. The culture is already shifting.”

Free Speech Crisis

Conservative think tank Policy Exchange’s 2019 and 2020 publications, both entitled “Academic Freedom in the UK,” revealed concerning levels of self-censorship among academics.

It added that the latest update from the Academic Freedom Index project stated that the country is experiencing “increasing limitations of academic freedom.”

The Free Speech Union, which has been campaigning for the free speech legislation, said the new bill “will go some way towards addressing the free speech crisis in our universities.”

It added: “About 20 percent of the 2,000+ cases we’ve dealt with in the past three years have involved universities, and we believe that in almost every one the student or academic who’s got into trouble would have been in a stronger position if this new law had been on the statute books.”

The campaign group praised the Conservative government for its role in passing the bill into law, saying the bill is “something the present government can point to that will genuinely advance the cause of free speech.”

But the group stressed that much remains to be done.

“Satisfying though it is to see this bill finally enter the statute books, this is no time for complacency in higher education. The new law only applies to England and Wales, so the next battle is to try to get a similar bill through the Scottish and Northern Irish parliaments. In due course, we will be launching a campaign to do just that.”

Right to Sue

Much of the debate over the free speech bill concerned the introduction of a statutory tort that would permit individuals who believe they have been no-platformed by a university or student union to seek compensation.

Critics argued that it would give rise to vexatious claims against universities and could bankrupt students’ unions.

In December, when the bill passed through the House of Lords, former Conservative universities minister Lord Willetts and others voted to remove the statutory tort from the legislation on the basis that it risked “imposing unnecessary additional costs on universities.”

But the Lords’ amendment was defeated in the House of Commons in February.

A subsequent amendment proposed by Lord Willetts in March, which was supported by the Tory frontbench, would still allow legal redress, but only after going through the formal complaints procedure.

But some members of the House of Commons expressed concern that the amendment would prevent individuals from seeking an injunction where swift action is required to rectify a breach of freedom of speech on campus.

The government then proposed a further amendment allowing individuals to seek injunctions in court, which was accepted by the Lords on Wednesday, paving the way for the bill to receive Royal Assent and formally become law.