“The Scottish Government Hate Crime Bill has triggered a huge public backlash with an unprecedented 2000 submissions received by Hollywood Justice Committee in a call for views.
Top lawyers, police officers, actors, academics and others warned that the Bill will undermine freedom of speech and expression. The strength of opposition has forced the Scottish government to limit the offences to behaviour ‘intended to stir up hatred’ rather than ‘mainly being likely to do so.’
However a host of problems remain. The offences still cover “abusive “ behaviour which is not defined. They apply to conversations in the privacy of the home. Vital clauses to protect freedom of expression are either weak or not included at all.
The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland stated: “we do have outstanding concerns around the potential for misinterpretation, appropriate defences and the lack of equity in relation to the freedom of expression provisions.”
Police Scotland stated “a mature democratic and truly tolerant society should be able to negotiate robust and even rude and insulting public and social discourse without recourse to the criminal law.”
Comedian Rowan Atkinson commented “The bill could frustrate rational debate and discussion which has a fundamental role in society.”
Ian Murray of the Society of Editors said “the legislation still remains a threat to established principles of free speech...free speech provisions remain inadequate and it is still too low threshold for offending.”
We move that the Council write to Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf stating that :
- As currently drafted the bill is a threat to free speech and requires to be radically reconstructed with Part 2 (on ‘stirring up hatred’) being deleted.
- The absence of a “dwelling defence “could cause a person to be prosecuted for remarks made in the privacy of their own home but not heard by anyone outside and should be reinstated.
- The lack of a “prosecution lock” meaning that prosecutions would require the consent of the Lord Advocate is essential to ensure that only serious cases are taken forward.”