Introduction and background
The Scottish Government has now introduced the Hate Crime & Public Order (Scotland) Bill into Holyrood. This bill arrives following a two-year process including the Lord Bracadale review and a further Scottish Government consultation. Having been introduced to parliament the lead Justice Committee has now issued a call for evidence.
You can find all the background information and respond to the call for evidence here: https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/115038.aspx
The closing date is Friday, 24 July.
The Evangelical Alliance has engaged with this process the whole way through and members will recall some of the previous challenges in this space including the Dear Bigot hate posters in 2018. Our policy team will be submitting a detailed response, but we would also encourage members to respond, in particular to Questions one, six and eight of the call for evidence.
What the bill does
The Scottish Government’s rationale for the bill is explained well by the Justice Committee in their call for evidence:
“According to the Scottish Government, this Bill provides for the modernising, consolidating and extending of hate crime legislation in Scotland. In its view, legislation in this area has evolved over time in a fragmented manner with the result that different elements of hate crime law are located in different statutes, there is a lack of consistency, and the relevant legislation is not as user-friendly as it could be. In its opinion, the new hate crime legislation will provide greater clarity, transparency and consistency.”
Specifically, part one of the bill functions as the consolidation piece while Part Two extends the legislation creating a series of new ‘Stirring Up Hatred’ offences.
Why it matters
This bill engages with crucial areas of our public life. While its aim is to protect people being victims of unfair treatment because of a characteristic of their identity, as the bill covers aspects of thought, speech and communication as well as physical conduct, by its nature it then touches on important freedom issues of conscience, thought and speech.
As Christians it’s important to state that we do not wish to see anyone suffer from hatred or be threatened or assaulted because of any aspect of their character or identity and so we recognise the Scottish Government’s intention in introducing this bill. We are a people of love not hatred and so we stand against all forms of hatred and anything that denies the human dignity of any human being.
However there are a number of significant concerns in relation to this bill that if left unchanged could seriously impact on freedom and could damage the very community cohesion that the bill is seeking to promote.
Call for evidence questions and points to use as you respond
Any new criminal offences are a significant development and there must always be a clear need for new criminal legislation. This bill is no exception particularly as the bill is so wide ranging and touches on areas of intent, communications and speech as well as physical conduct, and also covers locations including public places, private homes and even the performance of plays. There needs to be clarity as to why this bill is needed, what gap in legislation is filled by the bill and who is currently not protected by existing legislation. There are not clear answers to any of these questions with much of the language surrounding the bill based on terms such as ‘sending a clear message that behaviour will not be tolerated’. That in itself is not the basis for a good law.
We have significant concerns about this part of the bill which creates the new ‘Stirring Up’ offences. These include the level of the criminal threshold (which includes abusive alongside threatening without a definition of what this means), the lack of need to prove intent to meet the threshold (only that hatred is likely to be stirred up) for part of the criminal test and that communications can be deemed as illegal before they have ever been sent.
There are two free speech clauses in the bill relating to religion and sexual orientation which are welcome and provide a level of protection for criticism of both. This is good in principle as it allows freedom to share and discuss faith and also to have passionately held views on topics such as marriage without them in themselves coming under the new bill. However the protections are narrow and they don’t cover any other aspect of the bill, not least the current transgender conversation that is taking place in society. So these must be strengthened both in breadth to cover all aspects covered by the bill and in detail about what is protected in each area. Again this is not about seeking to promote hatred of anyone but rather to allow for honest conversation and disagreement about some very contested areas of views.
