Higher Education Act 2004 (c. 8)

Part 2 E+W Review of student complaints

17 Privilege in relation to law of defamation E+W

(1) For the purposes of the law of defamation, any proceedings relating to the review under the scheme of a qualifying complaint are to be treated as if they were proceedings before a court.

(2) For those purposes, absolute privilege attaches to the publication of—

(a) any decision or recommendation made under the scheme by a person responsible for reviewing a qualifying complaint, and

(b) any report under paragraph 6 or 7 of Schedule 3.

(3) In this section “the scheme” means the scheme for the review of qualifying complaints provided by the designated operator.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 17 in force for E. at 1.11.2004 by S.I. 2004/2781, art. 2

I2 S. 17 in force for W. at 1.12.2004 by S.I. 2004/3144, Sch. Pt. 1