Partial Win for Academic Freedom

Bridget Phillipson has updated the House of Commons on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act (HEFSA), which secured cross-party support in the last Parliament and received Royal Assent in May 2023. She will now implement some – but not all – of the remaining clauses. Clause 4, a cornerstone of the original law, will not be commenced, according to Phillipson. This would have introduced a statutory tort enabling students, university employees and visiting speakers to seek compensation in the courts if their free speech rights had been breached. The government has also removed provisions that would have included student unions in the Act’s scope. Speaking to The Telegraph, Toby Young said: “It comes as no surprise that the government appears to have performed a U-turn in response to our claim. But the Free Speech Union hasn’t received any communication from the Secretary of State, and the devil will be in the detail. In the meantime, we will be pressing on with our case.” During our discussion we refer to a very interesting post on X by Professor Jo Phoenix. There was further good news this week, reported in both The Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Eleanor Frances has secured a £116,749 settlement after bringing claims of victimisation, constructive dismissal and discrimination on the grounds of philosophical belief against the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Ms Frances said she was forced out of the service because of a “politicised climate of fear” within Whitehall, exacerbated by internal policies influenced by Stonewall and adopted without proper consultation. The departments are now working together to introduce a revised gender reassignment policy, informed by a new central model policy. We end with a discussion around how the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) has abolished the terms ‘slaves’ and ‘the slave trade’ as part of the process of decolonising the curriculum in Scotland. The full story was reported this week in The Mail.

‘That's Debatable!’  is edited by Jason Clift.