The FSU has formally commenced legal proceedings against the Government following its shocking decision to shelve the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, a vital piece of legislation designed to tackle cancel culture in English universities — the Telegraph has the story:
The Government faces a High Court showdown with its free speech tsar over plans to shelve a clampdown on university “cancel culture”.
Prof Arif Ahmed is the director for freedom of speech and academic freedom, a new role set up by the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson last month halted the introduction of the legislation, aimed at forcing universities to actively promote free speech on campus, just days before it was due to come into force.
She announced she was pulling the plug on the flagship Tory policy, and said she will now consider repealing it.
Ms Phillipson’s announcement to shelve the law threw Prof Ahmed’s position into doubt. While he is still formally employed as a director at the university watchdog the Office for Students (OfS), the complaints system he was meant to oversee now faces uncertainty and could be axed altogether.
He has spent the past year designing the complaints scheme, which would have allowed him to take submissions from academics who had been “cancelled” over their personal beliefs.
Prof Ahmed had been due to oversee all the OfS free speech functions, including carrying out investigations into universities that have been accused of breaching their duties under the act, which also gives the OfS the power to impose fines.
Since Ms Phillipson’s announcement, Prof Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University and outspoken champion of free speech, has not issued any public statements.
But legal documents, seen by the Telegraph, reveal that Prof Ahmed has been named as an “interested party” on an application for a judicial review of Ms Phillipson’s decision.
This means he will have the opportunity to take part in the Free Speech Union’s (FSU) legal challenge of the Government’s decision to halt the introduction of the bill.
Prof Ahmed, a former member of the advisory council at the FSU, will be able to make written submissions to the High Court and also appear in person with a barrister to challenge the Government on its arguments.
Worth reading in full.
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Yes, judicial review is expensive — but these proceedings are of the highest constitutional importance.
For almost 350 years, the governance of this country has rested on a golden premise: ministers of the Crown may not set aside the law made by Parliament.
We say that a new government, flushed with power and ideological fervour, has thrown that rule to the wind. We believe the law is clear: our fundamental right to free speech, as protected by our sovereign Parliament, cannot be treated with such cavalier contempt.
This is why our impending legal action is so important. Unless we put a marker down now, this Government will have a free hand to ride roughshod over one of our most precious values.
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