Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recourse (a) academics and (b) other people will have who believe that they have had their free speech curtailed, in the context of her proposals for the implementation of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023; and when that recourse will be available.

For academics, staff, and external speakers, the amended Office for Students’ (OfS) complaints scheme will be a route of redress through which staff, external speakers and members who believe higher education (HE) providers have breached their duties will be able to raise a complaint. It will be free at the point of use. The amendments to the provisions in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act complaints scheme will require primary legislation, and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education will be seeking a legislative vehicle through which to return this to Parliament at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, the HE sector will have new duties in place, as well as requirements to promote freedom of speech and put in place a code of practice in line with the Act.

Student complaints on freedom of speech will continue to be handled by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), who already has powers to consider these complaints, and whose service is free at the point of use. The OIA is well-established and recognised by students, and already considers free speech complaints.

Existing routes of redress through judicial review and employment tribunals will also continue to exist.

We will set out the government’s policy intentions on this and other policy issues in more detail as part of our policy paper, which will be published shortly.