Free speech complaints

If a complaint is made against an institution, we will notify the accountable officer (or other point of contact if applicable) and the chair of the governing body and ask for a response.

This page gives a summary of what to expect. You should refer to the scheme rules for full details of how the free speech complaints scheme works.

Submitting evidence

We will usually ask institutions to respond to a complaint within 14 days. We will consider requests for extra time.

Institutions are welcome to appoint a representative to respond to a complaint.

You should expect information that you submit to be shared with the complainant for response. 

How we make decisions

If necessary, we might ask for further information, which might include a meeting with the institution, or input from independent experts, before making a provisional decision about whether a complaint is justified and recommendations resulting from the complaint.

Possible outcomes

If it appears to the OfS that:

• it is more likely than not that the institution has breached, or is breaching, its free speech duty; and
• it is more likely than not that the complainant has suffered adverse consequences, that are more than minor or trivial, as a result of the breach

then we will determine that the free speech complaint is justified.

If it appears to the OfS that:

• it is more likely than not that the institution has breached, or is breaching, its free speech duty; and
• it is more likely than not that the complainant has not suffered adverse consequences or has suffered only minor or trivial adverse consequences as a result of the breach

then we will determine that the free speech complaint is partly justified.

If it appears to the OfS that it is more likely than not that the respondent is not breaching and has not breached its free speech duty, we will conclude that the complaint is not justified.

All parties in the case will have the chance to respond to the provisional decision before we make a final decision and publish outcomes.

Possible recommendations

We are able to make recommendations to institutions on actions they should take if a complaint is found to be justified or partially justified. This could look like an apology, changing a policy or paying the complainant a sum of money, for example.

We plan to design recommendations aiming to put the complainant in the position they would have been in before the circumstances of their complaint occurred, where appropriate and possible. Our recommendations may also relate to broader issues such as a change in the respondent’s processes or practices.

If an institution does not follow the recommendations that we make as part of a complaint process, we will engage with it as a part of our work on compliance with the conditions of registration. In some cases, this may escalate to regulatory action where appropriate and proportionate.

Publishing complaint details

We would normally expect to publish the outcome of a complaint, including the name of the institution, the reasons for our decision, and any recommendations.

We would not normally expect to publish the name of any individual. However, it may be possible to infer individuals’ identities from the information that we publish.

We also expect to publish statistical information about the number and type of free speech complaints, timescales for handling complaints, and the outcome of complaints. We would expect this to include the identity of the institution or constituent institution.

Cost recovery

Where we have made a decision that a free speech complaint is justified or partly justified, we may require the institution to pay our costs in relation to making the decision up to the date of notification.

This will be communicated at the same time as we issue a Notice of complaint outcome. We will provide notice should this be the case.