University failure to enforce safety measures

Overview

A university no-contact order (sometimes called a precautionary or supportive measure) is a contractual and disciplinary tool, not a court order. That distinction matters. When a university fails to enforce one, your remedies are primarily against the university through its own complaints machinery and, ultimately, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA), rather than through contempt proceedings as would apply to a court injunction. However, if the underlying conduct is criminal or amounts to harassment, you may also have separate routes against the other person directly. The right approach depends on some facts you have not yet given, which I flag below.

What a university no-contact order actually is

A no-contact order or safety measure is issued under the university’s own student conduct, safeguarding or sexual misconduct policies. It restricts named students from contacting or approaching each other and usually warns that a breach will be treated as a disciplinary matter. It creates obligations under the contract between you and the university (your enrolment terms and the policies incorporated into it), and it engages the university’s broader duties to provide a safe environment.

It is not the same as a civil injunction or a criminal restraining order. That means the university cannot be in contempt of court for failing to enforce it, but it can be in breach of its own procedures and potentially in breach of its duties to you.

The legal footing for holding the university to account

Several overlapping obligations are relevant, and which one bites depends on your facts.

Contract. Your relationship with the university is contractual. Its published policies on harassment, sexual misconduct, safeguarding and student conduct are generally incorporated into that contract. If a policy says the university will investigate reported breaches and take appropriate action, a persistent failure to do so can be a breach of contract. Consumer protection law also applies to students as consumers of education services, so services must be provided with reasonable care and skill.

Equality Act 2010. If the person subject to the order is harassing you because of a protected characteristic (for example sex, race, disability), or the conduct is sexual harassment, the university as a service provider and education body has duties not to permit a hostile environment and to take reasonable steps to prevent and address harassment. A failure to act on repeated breaches can feed a discrimination or harassment claim against the university itself.

Regulatory duties. The Office for Students (OfS) introduced a new condition of registration (condition E6) on harassment and sexual misconduct, in force from 1 August 2025, requiring registered English providers to have effective policies and to take steps to protect students. Persistent failure to enforce safety measures is relevant to whether the provider is meeting that condition. The OfS regulates providers, not individual complaints, but its expectations are a useful benchmark and can be cited in your complaint.

Negligence and duty of care. Where the university has assumed responsibility for your safety, for example by carrying out a risk assessment and imposing a no-contact order, and then fails to act on known breaches, there is a potential negligence argument if you suffer foreseeable harm. This is more fact-sensitive and harder to establish, but it strengthens the seriousness of a formal complaint.

What you should do, in order

1. Gather and preserve evidence. Keep a dated log of every breach, screenshots of messages, details of any in-person approaches, names of witnesses, and copies of the no-contact order itself and the policy under which it was issued. Note each occasion you reported a breach, to whom, and what response (if any) you received.

2. Report each breach in writing through the specified route. Most universities require you to report a suspected breach to a named team or email address with supporting evidence. Report every breach promptly in writing, even if you have reported similar conduct before, so that there is a clear paper trail of the university being on notice. Ask for written confirmation of what action will be taken and by when.

3. Escalate to a formal complaint. If breaches continue and the university does not act, submit a formal complaint under the student complaints procedure. Set out the order, each breach, each report you made, the university’s inaction, and the impact on you. State clearly what outcome you want, for example enforcement action against the other student, a strengthened measure, alternative arrangements for teaching or accommodation, and any remedy for the distress caused. Keep it factual and chronological.

4. Consider urgent interim safety requests. Alongside the complaint, ask the university to take immediate protective steps, such as timetable changes, moving accommodation, security escorts, or moving the other person, pending resolution. Frame this as the university’s duty to keep you safe while it deals with the substantive matter.

5. Obtain a Completion of Procedures Letter. Once you have exhausted the internal complaints and appeals process, ask for a Completion of Procedures Letter. You need this to take the matter to the OIA.

Escalating beyond the university

Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. The OIA is the independent ombudsman for students at higher education providers in England and Wales. It can review whether the university acted reasonably, followed its own procedures, and delivered a fair outcome. It cannot punish the other student, but it can find the university’s handling unreasonable and recommend remedies including compensation for distress and inconvenience, and it can recommend changes to practice. You generally have twelve months from the Completion of Procedures Letter to bring a complaint to the OIA. The OIA’s own case summaries show it does examine how providers handle harassment, sexual misconduct and protective measures, and it looks critically at delay and inaction.

Office for Students. You can raise systemic concerns with the OfS if you believe the provider is failing to meet its regulatory conditions on harassment and safety. The OfS will not resolve your individual dispute, but notifications inform its regulatory work.

Equality and Human Rights Commission and a discrimination claim. If the conduct is linked to a protected characteristic, you may have a claim against the university in the County Court under the Equality Act 2010 for failing to prevent a hostile environment. There is a strict time limit of six months less one day from the act complained of (subject to the court’s discretion to extend). Continuing failures may be treated as conduct extending over a period, but do not rely on that; note the earliest breaches.

Direct action against the other person

Do not overlook that the university order is only one layer of protection. If the conduct itself is serious, you may have direct remedies that do not depend on the university at all.

Police. If the breaches involve harassment, stalking, threats, assault or malicious communications, report to the police. Behaviour that breaches a university order can simultaneously be a criminal offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 or the Communications Act 2003.

Civil injunction. You can apply to the County Court for an injunction under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 if there has been a course of conduct amounting to harassment (broadly, conduct on at least two occasions). Unlike a university order, breach of a civil injunction is enforceable by the court and can carry serious consequences. This is often a more powerful protection than an internal measure precisely because a university cannot enforce its own order against a determined breacher in the way a court can.

Distinguishing failure to enforce from limits on what the university can do

Before concluding the university is at fault, it is worth separating genuine inaction from the ordinary limits of the process. A university may say it is taking action even where you cannot see the outcome, because disciplinary proceedings against the other student are usually confidential and it may not disclose the sanction imposed. It may also be gathering evidence or applying its own standard of proof before acting. That is different from doing nothing. In your complaint, focus on what the university has failed to do that it said it would do, for example failing to investigate reported breaches, failing to respond, failing to keep you informed of the status of your reports, or failing to take reasonable protective steps in the meantime. That framing is far more persuasive than an assertion that a particular sanction was not imposed.

Key facts that would change the answer

The strongest route depends on several things you have not stated. It would help to know whether the provider is in England or Wales and whether it is registered with the OfS; whether the other person is a student, staff member or unconnected third party (this affects which policy and which duties apply, and whether the university has any power over them at all); the nature of the conduct and whether it is criminal or discrimination-related; how many times you have reported breaches and what response you received; and whether you have yet completed the internal process. If the other person is not a student and not staff, the university’s powers are limited to protecting you on its own premises and estate, and your real remedy is likely to be police involvement or a civil injunction rather than a complaint about non-enforcement.

Practical priorities

If you feel at risk right now, treat safety as the priority: contact the police for anything criminal, and press the university in writing for immediate interim protection. In parallel, build the evidence trail and put in a clear written complaint so that, if internal handling fails, you have preserved your route to the OIA and, where relevant, to a court claim. Keep every deadline in mind, particularly the six months less one day for any Equality Act claim and the twelve months for the OIA after your Completion of Procedures Letter.