I was making the point that the case he used to illustrate the issue would have been likely to engage Prevent even if the Prevent considerations had taken second place to the decision to promote freedom of speech. I do not disagree with the noble Lord in the way he suggests.
This leads to the general point that, to assist it to discharge its duty of care, a provider needs to ensure that it has in place effective and robust systems, policies and procedures for supporting and managing students, and that training and awareness-raising is provided for staff. Such a duty of care does not conflict with the duties in this Bill. The requirement to take reasonably practicable steps allows providers to balance that duty with other duties and responsibilities to students, staff and members.
Amendment 35 from my noble friend Lord Moylan would add a new provision to the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010, whereby public authorities would need to have particular regard to their free speech duties. The amendment raises an important point. Providers are subject to different duties, and it is vital that they balance them appropriately. However, the Government are clear that the duties in the Bill will not override existing duties under the Equality Act, nor will those existing duties override the duties in the Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, cited the briefing from SOAS, which I have read. The briefing is absolutely incorrect to suggest otherwise. We need to remember that the public sector equality duty is a “due regard” duty.
There have been occasions when the Equality Act has been misinterpreted by providers—for example, as to whether the conduct is harassment—but the Office for Students will publish guidance to help bodies under this Act understand their duties and apply them. Providers will be required to take reasonably practicable steps to secure freedom of speech. In deciding what is reasonably practicable, they must have particular regard to the importance of freedom of speech. This does not mean that freedom of speech must always outweigh other considerations but indicates that it is a very important factor and will need to be weighed against other factors, including the public sector equality duty.
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Given that that is already set out in the Bill, I do not believe that it would be necessary or appropriate to amend the Equality Act. The noble Baroness, Lady Falkner, was quite right in what she said: even if that were to happen, it would not change providers’ legal obligations as they would have to comply with and balance their duties. as they always have done. To pick up a point made by the noble Baroness and the noble Lord, Lord Grabiner, we anticipate that the Office for Students will issue guidance that will help providers to apply their duties in practice. The noble Lord, Lord Collins, spoke of his fears around unintended consequences but I think the OfS guidance has the potential to minimise those.
Amendment 69 from my noble friend Lord Sandhurst and other noble Lords seeks to amend the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 to ensure that higher education providers must not exercise the Prevent duty in relation to certain functions; the content or delivery of the curriculum; the provision of library or other teaching resources; and research carried out by academic stuff. The Government are clear that the Prevent duty should not be used to suppress freedom of speech; rather, it requires providers, when exercising their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism. Importantly, there is no prescription from government or from the OfS regarding what action providers should take once they have had due regard.
The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, mentioned those with extremist views. That is an issue that I mentioned in relation to Holocaust denial, so I will not repeat what I said on Monday in that regard.
The legislation imposing the Prevent duty in relation to higher education specifically requires that providers and colleges must have particular regard to the duty to ensure freedom of speech and to the importance of academic freedom. For that reason, there really is no need for the amendment since freedom of speech and academic freedom are already taken into account when exercising the Prevent duty, alongside protecting student and staff welfare.
To address a point made by my noble friend Lord Sandhurst, it would not be right to go so far as to exclude the content of the curriculum, for example. If a professor wanted to teach in such a way that he could draw students into terrorism, that is something that the provider should consider having due regard to. I emphasise again that it is up to the provider what action then to take.
In conclusion, I hope I have reassured the Committee that the duties in the Bill have been carefully drafted to ensure that providers, their constituent institutions and student unions pay particular regard to the importance of free speech and academic freedom while retaining the flexibility, by virtue of the wording about steps being “reasonably practicable”, to balance the duty with their other obligations and responsibilities to students, staff and members.