Part 1: Duties to protect freedom of speech Section 3: Duties of students’ unions Section A5: Duty to take steps to secure freedom of speech
This section imposes new duties on a students’ union at a registered higher education provider that is eligible for financial support for the purposes of section 39 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. This does not include a students’ union for students at a constituent institution of such a provider.
	The students’ union must take reasonably practicable steps to achieve the objective of securing freedom of speech within the law for members and staff of the students’ union, students of the provider, members and staff of the provider or its constituent institutions, and visiting speakers. There is a duty to have particular regard to the importance of freedom of speech when determining what steps are reasonably practicable.
	The duty includes taking reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the use of premises occupied by the students’ union is not refused because of a person’s ideas or opinions, or a body’s policy or objectives; that the terms on which premises are provided are not based on those grounds; and that affiliation to the students’ union is not denied to any student society on those grounds.
	In order to achieve freedom of speech within the law, the students’ union must also secure that individuals or bodies that use its premises are not required to bear some or all of the costs of security, unless there are exceptional circumstances.