Meeting of the Parliament 26 January 2017
On behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, I thank the minister for the advance sight of her statement and welcome the forthcoming review of hate crime legislation in Scotland. We can all agree that hatred and prejudice have no place in our society. Members on the Conservative benches will engage with Lord Bracadale as he embarks on his important undertaking.
The minister mentioned
“the wide range of legislation that has an impact on tackling hate crime”,
but then went on to focus only on the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012. Why does the Scottish Government continue to ignore the will of Parliament when it comes to that flawed piece of legislation? Less than three months ago, the Parliament voted to repeal the 2012 act, which, I remind the minister, has been heavily criticised by the legal profession and the judiciary. Why is she including that piece of legislation in the review, instead of setting out a timeline for its repeal? The will of Parliament on that was made clear in November 2016.
Although it is important that the criminal justice system is equipped to deal with hate crime, it is also vital that victims come forward to report their experiences of hatred. I note that, in its latest hate crime statistics, the Crown Office says that disability hate crime
“continues to be under reported compared to other forms of hate crime.”
Can the minister confirm what the Scottish Government is doing to encourage and to improve the reporting of all types of hate crime in Scotland, and how the Bracadale review will look at the reporting of hate crime?