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933 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDHealth and Social Care LevyWhen I first heard that the Prime Minister was going to come forward with a plan for social care, to tell the truth I am so desperate for any improvement in social care that I…08 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q And academics in economics departments? Thomas Simpson: Right. So my view is that there is a really obvious coalition here of those who are concerned with the long-term health…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q Well, you took them to either employment tribunals or to complaints procedures. Dr Harris: We wrote letters to them, but to get to the central—07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q Yes—thank you. I am not going to have waffle from you. Therefore, why has your group taken three universities to trial over them trying to implement non-conscious bias training…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q The Bill is about trying to change cultures in universities. Surely that requires universities to train people about biases that they might have against right-wing or…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q Can I come in on this effect whereby you are saying that right-leaning academics are more likely to feel that they need to self-censor, which is kind of what you are suggesting,…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q On a slightly different topic—I would really appreciate your input here—you touched on employment law earlier. In the current employment law protections for academics, are there…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q But the external organisation might include staff, so the staff might have done the inviting but not in their staff role. Does this become very complex? Smita Jamdar: It does…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q Universities often lease out their venues and spaces for external conferences and meetings. Those meetings might well include their students and academics, but they are…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q Sometimes some of the public debate has been about debating societies—the Oxford Union, Cambridge Union, Durham and so on—but also other informal societies. Am I right in…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q That could be very expensive. Smita Jamdar: We should all take it for granted that any of this is going to be quite expensive. There is not a way round that. These cases are…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q You could have a Conservative society that had invited a Conservative Member who then defected to the Labour party. The society would want to disinvite them but would be…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q I wanted to bring it to student unions. This Bill puts a liability on student unions, and I have just set the budget for the University of Bradford’s student union in the lunch…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q Might a duty on universities to provide security in terms of contracts for academics to express different views help you so that you had security and you knew you would be…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (Second sitting)Q As in the last session, I declare my interests. I am a trustee at the University of Bradford Union. I work with the University of Sussex and UCU, the lecturers’, professors’ and…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (First sitting)Q How do you limit people applying political pressure? What you are saying is that the regulator needs to come in and say that the university has not limited other people’s…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (First sitting)Q The Bill gives protection for people to express things within their field of expertise. That means academic staff, not people who profess views outside of their expertise; they…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (First sitting)Q I agree with you that it is very worrying when people are dismissed for expressing views that do not relate to their job—a porter expressing a political view one way or another…07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (First sitting)Q Not an academic employee. Trevor Phillips: I am not a lawyer, but I do not think in terms of employment law there is any differentiation.07 Sept 2021HANSARD Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill (First sitting)The porter is not an academic member of staff. A porter is a non-academic member of staff, without academic privileges. My understanding is that they would not be covered under…07 Sept 2021