New powers for the UK home secretary to order universities to ban extremist speakers from their campuses are to be included in the counter-terrorism bill to be published on Wednesday, Theresa May has announced.
It will also place a statutory duty on schools, colleges, prisons and local council to help prevent people from being drawn into terrorism, the home secretary has said.
She said universities would have to show that they have put in place policies to deal with extremist speakers.
“The organisations subject to the duty will have to take into account guidance issued by the home secretary, Where organisations consistently fail, ministers will be able to issue directions to them “which will be enforceable by court orders”, May announced.
The home secretary confirmed that the new counter-terror law will include powers to exclude from the UK British citizens suspected of involvement in terrorism-related activity abroad. Their travel documents will be cancelled and their names placed on ’no-fly lists’ for up to two years under the new temporary travel exclusion orders.
In a speech at Rusi, the defence thinktank, May said: “The new powers will help us to prevent radicalisation, strengthen the Tpims [terrorism prevention and investigation measures] regime, give us greater powers to disrupt and control the movements of people who go abroad to fight, improve our border security, make sure British companies are not inadvertently funding ransom payments, close down at least part of the communications data capability gap, and establish a new independent privacy and civil liberties board.”
“This legislation is important. The substance is right. The time is right. And the way in which it has been developed is right.
“It is not a knee-jerk response to a sudden perceived threat. It is a properly considered, thought-through set of proposals that will help to keep us safe at a time of very significant danger. It builds on a successful strategy. It goes with the grain of existing policy. It has been drawn up in close consultation with the police and security services.It is deliberately focused on practical measures that we can be confident will work. And it broadly commands cross-party support,” she said.
