The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 placed a responsibility upon all universities to have ‘due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism,’ with effect from 28 September 2015. This has become known as the ‘Prevent duty’.

The Government’s Prevent duty guidance states that relevant higher education institutions need to balance their legal duties in terms of both freedom of speech and academic freedom, while also protecting student and staff welfare. The approach at Portsmouth is particularly focused on student and staff welfare.

The University’s Prevent duty activities are overseen by the Safeguarding Board, which is chaired by the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor – who leads on the Prevent agenda, with the support of the Executive Director of Corporate Governance.

For further information please email corporate-governance@port.ac.uk.