The government is to overhaul legislation imposing free speech duties on higher education in England, scrapping a controversial civil liability that potentially exposed universities to being sued by Holocaust deniers.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told parliament that while the government intended to retain key parts of the law passed by the previous Conservative administration, she planned to revoke the “statutory tort” that allowed legal action by anyone claiming their freedom of speech had been restricted, and to largely exempt student unions from the legislation.
The revised legislation will still impose a duty on universities to create codes of conduct and to promote free speech on campus, retaining an oversight role for the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator.
Phillipson defended the ending of the tort as removing a financial and administrative burden from universities and avoiding “clogging up the courts system”, as well as calming fears among minority groups that they could be targeted.
“The fear of litigation could hurt rather than help free speech. Universities may have decided against inviting challenging speakers to avoid ending up in court, and nobody wants that,” Phillipson said.
“But I have a message for vice-chancellors who fail to take this seriously: protect free speech on your campuses or face the consequences. For too long, too many universities have been too relaxed about these issues, too few took them seriously enough, and that must change.”
Under the revised law, universities that fail to uphold their duties can be fined or even have their licence to operate as a university taken away.
Elements of the existing law were opposed by university leaders and groups including the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), which feared that free speech protection could be exploited by Holocaust deniers and antisemites threatening legal action.
A spokesperson for the UJS said it supported the changes: “The result is that the act will now be less likely to damage efforts to tackle anti-Jewish racism on campus that should be welcomed by everyone.”
Phillipson said a new complaints procedure would be included in the legislation, to be administered by the OfS, which will retain the role of free speech tsar. A ban on universities entering into non-disclosure agreements with staff or students will also be carried over.
A government source said it had been right to take six months to create a “workable system”, in contrast to the Conservative’s “unworkable gimmickry that spoke more to them putting party interest over the national interest”.
The act was passed in 2023 but never implemented under the last government. When Labour took office, Phillipson shelved the law and said it was flawed, leading to claims by Conservatives that she hostile to free speech on campus.
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Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, accused the government of wanting to do away with free speech protections entirely after disparaging the act as a “hate speech charter”.
Trott said: “Those with natural sympathies to the secretary of state’s own political positions were compelled into telling her that she was wrong, and it’s only now, after all that humiliation, that she’s finally changed her footing. And I pay tribute to the academics who have led that fight back outside of parliament.”
The National Union of Students also welcomed the changes, including the removal of student unions from much of the legislation’s scope.
Amira Campbell, the NUS president, said: “We’re delighted to see this culture wars legislation dropped by the new government. After years of campaigning from students’ unions, the Freedom of Speech Act is now truly focusing on freedom of speech.
“With the threat of complex legal responsibilities and new regulation no longer hanging over them, our member students’ unions can get back to doing what we all do best: supporting students to thrive, debate ideas and take part in campus life.”
