Regulatory update: harassment, sexual misconduct and consumer law

The OfS has been pretty active over the last 24/48 hours and has published its activities in respect of regulating registered higher education providers in connection with consumer law and in publishing the long-awaited final version of condition of registration E6 and technical guidance (and see also our previous blogs here and here).

This is in line with the Secretary of State’s recent comments about her desired focus for the OfS.

We’ll comment in greater detail on E6 separately, but note the headlines that a ban on non-disclosure provisions (where they cover allegations of harassment or sexual misconduct) comes into force on 1 September 2024 with the full condition E6 coming into force on 1 August 2025.  The OfS ban on non-disclosure provisions is additional to a range of other regulatory and other measures that already restrict the use of NDA provisions in various contexts.

Registered providers would be justified in feeling slightly relieved that additional time has been given to prepare compliant policies and processes and deliver the required training.

We’ve also read with interest the accounts of the OfS’s and Trading Standards’ intervention in connection with student contracts.  The message is clear: this is an area of focus and concern for the regulator.  However, we are aware of the fine detail of some of the illustrations and note with interest that the OfS identify that their referrals to Trading Standards have yielded successful outcomes.  Our experience suggests that Trading Standards took a different view to the OfS in respect of the majority of the issues upon which the OfS made its referrals.