I thank my right hon. Friend for his point. I know that he is very well informed on that issue. There are bodies out there that would wish to do institutional harm on our campuses. But there is also the reputational damage that these actions can cause. Many will seek resolution out of court, and that will become more and more obvious. It is a real concern that this will see haemorrhage much-needed funding away from our universities and student unions.

Universities UK made the point that these measures will bring about a “compensation culture”, and it was not the only one. Many have said that the great fear is that they will lead to the rise of spurious or vexatious claims and that the Bill provides little protection from a funded and co-ordinated campaign, which could be launched against several institutions, as my right hon. Friend the Member for North Durham alluded to.

Many universities and student unions are concerned that they will spend significant time and money fighting these battles. They have just emerged from the pandemic; funding is challenging, and the viability of student unions, in particular, is threatened. The prospect of the £48.1 million cost—of providing information to students, of the reporting and of the potential claims—is extremely concerning.

Ms Jamdar from Shakespeare Martineau said:

“Some of the cases may be small claims, where even if the university is successful in defending the claim, it will not recover its legal costs. Even getting rid of vexatious claims by striking them out can be expensive.”

So there are significant costs for the university whatever happens. She also said:

“a few thousand pounds in every case could be spent getting rid of claims that are either very trivial or unmeritorious generally.”––[Official Report, Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Public Bill Committee, 7 September 2021; c. 48, Q90.]

Do the Government really want to take money from hard-hit students and place it into the hands of far-right holocaust deniers or, as mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for North Durham, those state actors wishing to do us harm? If this clause is to be kept in the Bill, then it must, at the very least, be amended to ensure that there is a maximum fine, at a level that universities and student unions can afford. We will come to that in due course.

In its written evidence, the sector—Universities UK, the Russell Group and others—raised the idea of introducing amendments outlining an explicit threshold of harm before someone could make use of the tort, or restricting the tort to those directly affected, thereby reducing the volume of claims that could be taken to court. That is to restrict it to those with genuine grievances—a point made in the Russell Group’s written evidence. It adds, very usefully:

“This would be consistent with the protections provided in the Defamation Act 2013 passed by the Conservative-led government of the day, while still offering a route to redress for individuals directly affected by any failure to protect freedom of speech or academic freedom.”

We must remember—we have made this point on many occasions over the last few days—that many HE institutions and colleges are quite small. The Association of Colleges reminded us of that. Some of the smaller, specialist colleges or HE institutions may have only 2,000 or 3,000 students. They will not be able to cope, administratively or financially, with these additional burdens.

Clause 3 will ultimately take vital money away from teaching students and important research, as well as taking away the funding that student unions and universities need to address the crisis in mental health and the violence against women on our campuses. We therefore believe that it should be scrapped or at the very least amended.

The third point I mentioned was the unintended consequences. We have heard, from not just the National Union of Students but academics, representative bodies and the only lawyer, that this tort could, ironically, end up restricting free speech on campuses. If universities and student unions are put at risk of burdensome, costly legal action, they may decide not to invite controversial speakers. We have heard that from universities and student unions themselves, so we should not be surprised by that if this tort remains in the Bill.

Professor Layzell, representing Universities UK, said in the evidence sessions:

“There is a concern around the litigation and making both student unions and universities more risk averse”.––[Official Report, Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Public Bill Committee, 13 September 2021; c. 125, Q272.]

That concern is, I think, widely held. Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, the vice-president for higher education at the National Union of Students, said:

“I think a direct unintended consequence of this Bill could be that student unions would become more risk averse to inviting speakers, because they just cannot handle the bureaucracy; they just cannot handle the prospect of having to pay lots of money in the case of litigation.”––[Official Report, Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Public Bill Committee, 13 September 2021; c. 136, Q302.]

Patrick O'Donnell, president of the University of York students’ union, said:

“The danger with the government’s statutory tort is that it will have a chilling effect—students’ unions or their student groups weighing up inviting an external speaker may well conclude that the risks are outside of their control yet too great. The government should work with us to broaden and deepen engagement with controversial views—not cause students to risk-assess the life out of campus.”