Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 2, which is in my name and that of the noble Lord, Lord Trie...

My Lords, I start with my declaration of interests: I still hold academic posts at Cambridge, and...

My Lords, I will speak to the two amendments in my name in this group, Amendments 13 and 28. In d...

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord. In this very short but interesting deb...

My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 30. I should first apologise for not speaking at Second Readi...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 36 in my name. I apologise for not speaking at Second Readin...

My Lords, I support Amendments 13 and 28, which I have put my name to. In general, I support any ...

I begin by saying that, although I do not know how many others here have, I have on more than one...

My Lords, I declare an interest as the former warden of Wadham College, Oxford, and as an honorar...

My Lords, I did speak at Second Reading, so I really am not going to make a Second Reading speech...

My Lords, it sounds to me that the noble Baroness is making the case for why Article 10 is insuff...

Inasmuch as there is a limit to what any legislation can do without the resources and culture, cl...

With respect, I have not made a case against human rights. The definition I propose does not impi...

I beg the noble Lord’s pardon. I take the point, and I tried to make it clear that I know that he...

My Lords, I also apologise for not having participated at Second Reading. I have a perfectly exce...

My Lords, I wish to speak briefly in my own right, as opposed to speaking for my noble friend Lor...

My Lords, this has been a fascinating debate, and one we could continue for some time, because it...

My Lords, we have begun our debates in Grand Committee with a group of amendments all of which, i...

I am sorry to interrupt, but the Minister said a couple of times that subsection (11) is a defini...

I take the noble Lord’s point entirely. I think that I said that the definition I referred to was...

Does the noble Earl not think that that is a good example of where good practice can be adopted n...

We certainly hope that this will gain traction. I agree that in most circumstances it is better t...

Does my noble friend wish to expand at all on my Amendment 13 about “reasonably practicable”? The...

I apologise to the Committee. I know that I have been speaking for a long time, but this is the v...

My Lords, clearly, I have not quite been mandated by my noble friend to accept the noble Earl’s a...

Moved by

Baroness Smith of Newnham

4: Clause 1, page 1, leave out line 14

Membe...

My Lords, again I am moving an amendment on behalf of my noble friend Lord Wallace. It might appe...

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 22. One of the things that I have inevitably observed over...

My Lords, I will address Amendment 26 and the consequential Amendment 71, which we need not look ...

My Lords, much has been said that I agree with. I shall speak to Amendment 26, to which I put my ...

My Lords, I thought it axiomatic that references to academic staff in the Bill included all acade...

My Lords, is this not another example of why it would be helpful to have a definition provision i...

My Lords, picking up that last point, I support the amendments in this group that expand the defi...

My Lords, if a science department employs people who do not believe in science, that does not see...

The noble Baroness is making precisely the point I was seeking to draw out. As we discussed at Se...

My Lords, first I need to apologise—I forgot to declare my interests in the debate on the previou...

My Lords, this is a very important small group of amendments. It seems to me that the previous gr...

My Lords, this second group of amendments relates to members and academics, as covered by the Bil...

It appears, according to Clause 2, that colleges are constituent parts of universities and are th...

I would be happy to take this away and investigate. Once I have done so, I would be happy to writ...

I would be grateful for that letter as well. I suggest to the noble Earl that one of my experienc...

I am grateful to the noble Lord. I wanted just to cover another question that the noble Baroness ...

Under the Bill as currently worded, would the emeritus professor at Sussex University—who was not...

I do not think it is for the Bill—or indeed the Government—to specify an answer to that question ...

So, is the Minister clarifying that there is nothing in the Bill that would prohibit the universi...

Exactly right.

I was making the point that a provider in this context is an employer and th...

Does the noble Earl nevertheless recognise that this is one of the weaknesses in the Bill that is...

With great respect to the noble Lord, I challenge any university to point to a provision in the B...

I am really quite surprised, because I hoped that the noble Earl was going to respond to my quest...

We always have to come back to what the Bill specifies that a university should do, which is to t...

I think that, although I shall withdraw this amendment, we are likely to have a form of amendment...

Moved by

Lord Stevens of Birmingham

5: Clause 1, page 1, line 17, leave out “securing...

The noble Lord, Lord Willetts, sends his apologies for an unforeseen family emergency, so I will ...

My Lords, my Amendment 6 is on the same principle: unintended consequences. The Government would ...

My Lords, I support Amendments 5 to 7 in particular. I shall follow on from the comments of the n...

My Lords, on the point we have just been discussing, is this not a very good example of the kind ...

My Lords, I shall speak to yet another amendment from my noble friend Lord Wallace of Saltaire. I...

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, very briefly, and to speak t...

My Lords, I welcome these amendments, because they probe the practical implications of these clau...

My Lords, the group of amendments to Clauses 1 and 3 tabled in the name of my noble friend Lord W...

I want to go back to the noble Earl’s point on security costs. I would like to understand a littl...

Amendments 24 and 43, spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, exactly address that set of is...

When the police decide to intervene, it is often not because a host organisation decides that the...

I am not sure I accept the noble Lord’s argument. If an event is properly planned—which it should...

If I may respectfully say so, that is a terribly important point. It is obviously critical that p...

I am very grateful to the noble Lord; I will certainly take that point away and make sure that it...

Following on from the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Grabiner, could the Minister clarify how...

We are coming later on to a group of amendments that could well encompass the noble Baroness’s qu...

I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 5.

Tabled by

Lord Mann

6: Clause 1, page 1, line 18, leave out first “any”

In not moving the amendment, I just say to the Government that sometimes, in government and polit...

Moved by

Lord Sandhurst

12: Clause 1, page 2, leave out lines 7 and 8 and insert—

My Lords, the importance of this amendment is to put the duties towards academic freedom on a rat...

Looking at proposed new subsection 5(a)(ii), I do not really understand why the noble Lord wishes...

What we are concerned with in particular is people losing their employment, but I am happy to go ...

My Lords, I wish to introduce Amendment 14. It touches on the kinds of concerns that the noble Lo...

I shall speak to Amendment 17 from the noble Lord, Lord Strathcarron, to which I have put my name...

My Lords, I rise very briefly, because I think Amendment 14, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord ...

My Lords, I think my noble friend Lord Wallace’s amendments here speak directly to some of the po...

Amendment 15.

Sorry, Amendment 15. This just demonstrates that the profession I need to go to is my optician, w...

My Lords, I share the concerns of the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, around Amendment 15. I was quite ...

Sorry, it is me again, but this is me as myself. Can the noble Lord explain why it is different f...

I think there is a marketplace in ideas—maybe I am not answering the noble Baroness’s question as...

I apologise to the Committee because I was unable to be here for Second Reading, so I come a litt...

I completely understand the noble Baroness’s point about terms and conditions. That is perfectly ...

My Lords, I shall just deal with that. I am aware of very vigorous debate at Cambridge University...

My Lords, I shall speak briefly in support of the noble Baronesses, Lady Fox of Buckley and Lady ...

My Lords, Amendments 15 and 16 were probing amendments, so I do not think my noble friend Lord Wa...

First, I apologise for not attending Second Reading; I could not be here. I shall speak very brie...

My Lords, I speak to my Amendments 17, 18, 19 and 21. We have already debated Amendment 17 at som...

I briefly say that I think the noble Earl has three things he needs to address in this group of a...