diff --git a/lib/mlbackend/php/classes/processor.php b/lib/mlbackend/php/classes/processor.php
index db972c83a32..bf9c5fea0ce 100644
--- a/lib/mlbackend/php/classes/processor.php
+++ b/lib/mlbackend/php/classes/processor.php
@@ -68,9 +68,6 @@ class processor implements \core_analytics\classifier, \core_analytics\regressor
      * @return bool
      */
     public function is_ready() {
-        if (version_compare(phpversion(), '7.0.0') < 0) {
-            return get_string('errorphp7required', 'mlbackend_php');
-        }
         return true;
     }
 
diff --git a/lib/mlbackend/php/lang/en/mlbackend_php.php b/lib/mlbackend/php/lang/en/mlbackend_php.php
index 45ed6450566..819f6736ab4 100644
--- a/lib/mlbackend/php/lang/en/mlbackend_php.php
+++ b/lib/mlbackend/php/lang/en/mlbackend_php.php
@@ -27,6 +27,5 @@ $string['errorcantloadmodel'] = 'Model file {$a} does not exist. The model shoul
 $string['errorlowscore'] = 'The evaluated model prediction accuracy is not very high, so some predictions may not be accurate. Model score = {$a->score}, minimum score = {$a->minscore}';
 $string['errornotenoughdata'] = 'There is not enough data to evaluate this model using the provided analysis interval.';
 $string['errornotenoughdatadev'] = 'The evaluation results varied too much. It is recommended that more data is gathered to ensure the model is valid. Evaluation results standard deviation = {$a->deviation}, maximum recommended standard deviation = {$a->accepteddeviation}';
-$string['errorphp7required'] = 'The PHP machine learning backend requires PHP 7';
 $string['pluginname'] = 'PHP machine learning backend';
 $string['privacy:metadata'] = 'The PHP machine learning backend plugin does not store any personal data.';