Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)

I am looking forward to coming to the noble Baroness, but I will answer this question first. I thank my noble friend and strongly agree that there is an appropriate role for legislation, as we have identified, and an enormously important role for culture, serious thinking and engagement. That perhaps needs to be focused on as well, particularly by those in leadership positions in higher education such as my noble friend. On the decisions around where the focus for the OfS should be, I put on record my admiration for the work of Dr Arif Ahmed as director of free speech, who will remain in his position. He will be able to work with higher education on some of the positive ways in which institutions can respond through best practice and discussions around identifying where the balance lies in the issues my noble friend raises. I reiterate that I will come back with the policy paper on some of the other questions my noble friend raises. I very much welcome the fact that universities have begun to take action on developing the codes of practice and on putting in place the academic bodies and committees that will consider some of these very difficult issues around challenges to academic freedom. On the point from the noble Baroness, Lady Barran, about what people should be doing, they should be continuing in a spirit of engagement with those areas of the legislation that we have been clear we are going to commence, and continuing the important work that has started.