Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the implications for freedom of speech in universities of recent reports of violent protests at an Israeli Society event at King’s College London.
Joseph Johnson
The Government strongly opposes any kind of violence or intimidation that curtails free speech in universities and leads to the closure of peaceful meetings.
King’s College London has undertaken its own review of the protests at the Israeli Society event on 19th January and concluded that a number of individuals “intentionally disrupted the rights of others to exercise freedom of speech within the law”.
Whilst the violent protests were deplorable, KCL has acted to reiterate its commitment to free speech and take disciplinary measures against individuals concerned.
The Prevent duty introduced in September 2015 requires institutions to have robust policies and procedures in place to manage events such as this in order to protect students and staff and safeguard freedom of speech. As the designated monitoring body, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will be making an assessment of compliance with the requirements of the duty.
