Of course it was a throwaway line, but the job does pay £100,000. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman has a second job, but I do not, unlike so many on the Government Benches who may have second jobs. It goes without saying, in my book, that that person should resign if he or she is a member of a political party—that a person in such a sensitive role should be seen to be unalloyed by association, because perception is so important in this context. Of course I made that remark in jest, but it does seem to be a staggering amount of money that the Government are throwing at this post.
6.15 pm
Let me now move on. The sector expects those leading the Office for Students to be credible. If we really are to have a director for free speech, a person tasked with the job of settling contentious cases, it is in all our interests for that person to have a broad understanding of the sector, the legal framework around free speech to which I have referred, and the sector’s regulatory framework, but those elements are apparently not included in this job description. Such considerations would endow the director with greater legitimacy and authority, especially if he or she is to command the confidence of the Select
Committee and both Houses. In short, new clause 4 is a common-sense amendment prioritising independence, accountability, and authority over top-down, partisan decision making.
Amendment 17, also tabled in my name, touches on one of the central tenets of the Bill, namely academic freedom. This can clearly be a fluid concept that has different meanings for different people in different contexts. Before I speak to that amendment, however, I want to address Government amendments 1, 2 and 16, which would remove the words
“and within their field of expertise”
from the definition of academic freedom. Although, both on Second Reading and in Committee, we expressed our concerns and those of the sector about how the Bill in its current form would in fact curtail academic freedom, only now have the Government moved on this. It is a shame that it took them just shy of 400 days to sit up and take note. Perhaps that demonstrates not just the disdain that Ministers show to academics and teaching staff, but their failure to appreciate the nature of our rightly admired, polymathic academic environment. Amendment 17, however, gives Ministers and the Conservative party an opportunity to demonstrate the extent of their support for academics.
Labour’s second amendment is partly inspired by part VI of the UNESCO definition of academic freedom. In the UNESCO definition, the concept of academic freedom is broken down into five parts: freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom to research and publish the results thereof, freedom for higher education teaching staff to express their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship, and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies.
Let me briefly address the issue of research. Evidence submitted to the Public Bill Committee, notably by Professor Stephen Whittle, highlighted instances in which some universities have blocked research that they deemed too controversial. While such cases are few and far between—partly owing to the Government-encouraged marketisation of the sector and the promotion of students as customers—I see no reason why the research interests of academics should not be protected under the definition of academic freedom. That said, academics are employees of higher education providers, institutions that will always require an academic to deliver teaching and research that satisfy the needs of students.
It is also important to link academic freedom to internationally recognised standards, given the Government’s stated desire to rip up the Human Rights Act. Before the Minister tabled an amendment to remove the words
“and within their field of expertise”,
coupled with plans to repeal the Human Rights Act, that would have left academics less protected than those in Europe. Nothing can be more important in this Bill than the scope of academic freedom, and that is why Labour’s amendment is so vital. Protecting academic freedom goes beyond partisan political lines, as it provides a solid basis on which academics feel secure enough to test and challenge perceived wisdom. I urge Conservative Members to consider the interests of academics, and to support our amendment this evening.
I now want to turn to amendment 18, which recognises that in many cases where freedom of speech is called into question there are competing freedoms at play. It would therefore require the director to consider the right of students to feel safe, along with other legal duties of the provider when reaching a decision about a particular case. The Minister herself acknowledged on Radio 4 that the Bill emboldens holocaust deniers and other purveyors of hate speech by giving them the power to make vexatious complaints against universities. Invariably, there are competing interests at stake when speakers are invited on to our campuses.
Freedom of speech is not a trump card. Students also have a right not to be harassed, a right not to be subjected to hate speech and, perhaps most importantly, a right to protest. The right for students to feel safe on campus sometimes requires greater protection than that afforded to them under the Equality Act, especially in instances of reprehensible but lawful speech, such as holocaust denial. Professor Stephen Whittle from Manchester Metropolitan University acknowledged as much in the Bill Committee, recognising that the Equality Act would afford protection only if the speech were directly addressed to the complainant. That is important because front groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is not a proscribed organisation but which often espouses antisemitic views, could come on to campus under the guise of freedom of speech. That point was not lost on the director of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, Danny Stone, who views it as a “real concern”. In such cases, the right of students—in this example, Jewish students—to feel safe on campus clearly must be considered. The Minister’s approach to the sensitive issues reported in the press overlooks those competing freedoms. It is perhaps a symptom of the Government’s singular desire to
“create political and cultural dividing lines mainly for”—
their—
“advantage”.
Those are not my words but those of the right hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman).
I want to turn briefly to new clause 5. It would introduce a sunset clause to the Bill, ensuring that it expired after three years, and provides for clauses to be removed if they are not working. The new clause does not deny the importance of freedom of speech or academic freedom, or our commitment on this side of the House to both. It addresses the flimsy evidence base underpinning the Bill. Last week at the Higher Education Policy Institute annual conference, the Minister struggled to provide concrete evidence to show that there was a freedom of speech crisis in our universities, other than anecdotes and what she believed to be true.