Prevent duty guidance to universities unlawfully violates freedom of speech, rules court of appeal

2019-03-22T22:09:23+00:00 March 22nd, 2019|Prevent in the News|

The Prevent duty legally binds universities to curbing on-campus radicalisation as part of the UK’s counter-terror legislation strategy. Yesterday, the court of appeal found the government’s guidance to universities on carrying out the duty to be unlawful.

The ruling argued that the guidance does not sufficiently inform universities of their duty to ensure freedom of speech.

The judicial review focused on paragraph 11 of the Prevent duty guidance to higher education institutions in England and Wales published in 2015, which says that universities should not allow events featuring external speakers to proceed “if the views being expressed, or likely to be expressed, constitute extremist views that risk drawing people into terrorism or are shared by terrorist groups”, unless this risk can be “fully mitigated”.

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