The Government has set the next commencement dates for the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 in England, moving another part of the regime from statute book to operation. The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2026 were made on 17 June 2026 and signed by Josh MacAlister, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education. According to the Regulations and the accompanying explanatory note, the effect is staged. A limited Office for Students complaints scheme will begin on 1 September 2026, while the next set of provider-facing registration conditions will not begin until 1 April 2027.
The first date, 1 September 2026, partially commences section 8 of the 2023 Act. That section inserts section 69C and Schedule 6A into the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, creating a statutory free speech complaints scheme to be run by the Office for Students as the higher education regulator for England. The commencement is not complete. The Regulations bring section 8 into force only so far as it supports certain higher education provider complaints. They do not switch on every route that appears in the parent Act, and the drafting makes clear that the Government is taking a narrower first step.
In practical terms, the OfS scheme from September 2026 will be available for complaints connected to the action or inaction of the governing body of a registered higher education provider, or of a constituent institution, where a person says they suffered adverse consequences and there is a question about breach of the provider free speech duty under section A1 of the 2017 Act. The explanatory note sets out the groups covered at this stage. They are current or former members of staff, current or former members of a provider or constituent institution other than those whose membership exists only because they are students, applicants to become academic staff, and people who have been invited to speak as visiting speakers.
Just as important are the routes that remain outside commencement. The September 2026 start does not activate the students’ union free speech complaints scheme, and it does not activate complaints brought in a student capacity. The Regulations expressly exclude the parts of Schedule 6A dealing with students’ union complaints, and they also exclude higher education provider complaints made by a person because they are or were a student. That means the new OfS route is not yet a general campus complaints gateway for every category of participant. At this point, the regime is aimed more tightly at staff, certain non-student members, academic job applicants and visiting speakers.
The instrument also commences related minor and consequential amendments from 1 September 2026 where they are connected to the provisions being started. The legal effect is mainly technical, but it matters for the working of the complaints scheme because the supporting amendments align the 2017 Act and other enactments with the newly active provisions. For policy teams and governance officers, the message is that September is not only a symbolic date. It is the point at which the statutory complaints machinery begins to operate for defined groups, with the supporting amendments brought in alongside it.
A second commencement date follows on 1 April 2027. From that point, section 6 of the 2023 Act comes into force, except for the element that inserts section 8A(3) into the 2017 Act. As the explanatory note states, section 8A(1) and (2) require the OfS to ensure that relevant registration conditions for higher education institutions include new freedom of speech conditions. One element is deliberately held back. Section 8A(3), which would require the OfS to ensure that providers eligible for financial support have a condition requiring their governing body to keep the regulator informed of students’ unions at the provider, is not commenced by this instrument. The April 2027 start is therefore broader than the September 2026 change, but it is still not the full scheme in every respect.
The wider history of the Act helps explain why these dates matter. The explanatory material describes this instrument as the fourth set of commencement regulations under the 2023 Act, and it also records that the earlier Commencement No. 2 Regulations made in 2024 were later revoked before the remaining provisions in that instrument had taken effect. For providers in England, the immediate task is to read the timetable as a phased compliance plan rather than a single start date. From 1 September 2026, the OfS complaints route opens for a limited set of complainants. From 1 April 2027, the free speech registration conditions begin to take effect, apart from the separate students’ union information requirement. The explanatory note also states that no further impact assessment has been produced for this instrument because no additional effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen beyond the assessment already prepared for the 2023 Act.