Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 11 March 2021
I, for one, will support Johann Lamont’s position and I certainly support her right not to vote for the bill for the good reasons that she set out. I would support her if she is attacked in any way for that, because I do not believe for a second that Johann Lamont is against the bill for any other reason. I put that on the record.
The bill has, without a doubt, been on a journey. Those of us on the Justice Committee have spent many hours looking at the bill and trying to work together to improve it, and we have made significant progress on that. As has been said before, the law has protected people for decades from anyone stirring up hatred against them due to their race. The bill now extends that protection to people in relation to other characteristics and it is supported by dozens of organisations that support the victims of hate crime.
The consensus that has brought us to this point has been down to the Government listening to the concerns that have been raised and making changes to address them. Further changes were agreed yesterday. The concerns over freedom of expression were raised, listened to and acted upon to ensure that any successful prosecution for the new offences must prove that the person intended to stir up hatred. The bill includes the reasonable person test to ensure that an objective test is applied. It is a high threshold and the strengthening of the freedom of expression clauses yesterday by Adam Tomkins strengthens the position further, so that we now have very strong freedom of expression protections. That is right.
In its job of scrutinising the bill, the Justice Committee has taken extensive evidence on all related matters, and the bill now strikes the right balance between protecting groups that are targeted by hate crime and respecting people’s right to freedom of speech. Many of us on the committee wrestled with that, as it is not an easy balance to strike. We have got to the best place that we could have.
The debate has been dominated by the debate on whether, at this stage, to include a sex aggravator. I thought that Annabelle Ewing’s speech yesterday summed up matters rather well—I agree with her. It is not just that a number of women’s organisations raised concerns about the inclusion at this stage of a sex aggravator, for reasons that are well rehearsed. The events of recent days remind us of the deep-rooted misogyny and male violence in our society. I hope that, along with Johann Lamont, we all agree on the changes in our society that we want to happen. We might disagree on some of the processes to get there and we obviously disagree on aspects of the bill. What unites us is that, if we painted pictures of the type of society that we want, they would not differ very much.
The working group—although this is not just about the working group—has a job to look at whether a sex aggravator should be added to the proposed legislation at a later stage, and I would like it to do a root-and-branch investigation of what more can be done to tackle misogyny in our society, whether through legislation, policy, education or cultural and societal change. I like to think that not only the working group but all of us have a job to put that at centre stage in the work of the next Parliament, along with allies outside the Parliament, who I am sure will continue to work hard on the issue. I hope that we can unite on that, if on nothing else.
14:22