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Have your say on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

13 July 2021

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Do you have relevant expertise and experience or a special interest in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill 2021-22, which is currently passing through Parliament?

If so, you can submit your views in writing to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee which is going to consider this Bill.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Tuesday 7 September. Written evidence can now be submitted to the Public Bill Committee. The Committee is scheduled to report by Thursday 23 September. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 23 September. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration.

Aims of the Bill

The Bill seeks to bring forward a range of measures aimed at strengthening and extending existing legislation on freedom of speech and academic freedom in higher education.

Provisions in the Bill would:

  • allow the Office for Students (OfS) to monitor and enforce freedom of speech measures at higher education institutions,
  • introduce a complaints system and redress for breaches of free speech duties through the introduction of a statutory tort,
  • extend duties on free speech to students’ unions, and
  • create a role of Director of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom at the OfS.

Follow the progress of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

 The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill 2021-22 was introduced to the House of Commons on 12 May 2021. This Bill was debated at second reading on Monday 12 July 2021 and has now been sent to a Public Bill Committee which will scrutinise the Bill line by line and is expected to report to the House by Thursday 23 September 2021.

Oral evidence sessions are expected to be held on Tuesday 7th and Thursday 9th September.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Tuesday 7 September. Written evidence can now be sent in to the Public Bill Committee. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration and possibly reflect it in an amendment. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee will be available in due course under Selection of Amendments on the Bill documents pages. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be Tuesday 7 September and the Committee is scheduled to report by Thursday 23 September. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 23 September. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk

Further guidance on submitting written evidence can be found here.

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