Universities in England risk fines of £500,000 or 2% of their annual income under a new complaints scheme designed to safeguard academic freedom and free speech on campuses. The Office for Students (OfS), England's higher education regulator, will operate the system from the new academic year, allowing staff, external speakers, and non-student members to raise concerns; from April, the OfS will also gain the power to levy fines or strip institutions of public funding for breaches of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. The move comes after reports of speakers and academics being blocked or harassed over gender-critical or religious views, and concerns about foreign interference in university research, with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson warning that too many academics are being silenced in an "unacceptable culture of fear."