Lord Balfe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Balfe on 2016-01-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to take steps to prevent the Egyptian cleric Fadel Soliman from speaking at British universities.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

The Government introduced a duty on universities in September 2015 to ensure that they have due regard to the need to prevent people being drawn into terrorism. The statutory guidance which accompanies the duty makes clear that universities must ensure that they assess the risks associated with organisations and speakers at events on campus, putting mitigations in place where necessary or cancelling events where the risk cannot be mitigated.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has been appointed as the body to monitor compliance at English universities, including where potential breaches of the duty are reported. Appropriate arrangements will apply in Wales and Scotland.