Meeting of the Parliament 26 January 2017
I welcome the constructive comments that were made at the outset of Mr Ross’s question. It is good to hear that the Conservative Party will engage with the review.
Mr Ross mentioned the position of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012. The review has a very wide reach and I referred to a number of pieces of legislation. I also felt that it was important to reflect and to recognise the views of the Parliament with respect to one piece of the hate crime legislation jigsaw, which is why I spent a bit of time on it; members would have been surprised if I had not done that.
Our position remains clear: without a viable alternative, we do not support a repeal of the 2012 act for the reason that such a move would take away protections. With the threats to civil liberties, to peoples’ rights and to equality that we see around the world at this time, now would be the wrong time to take protections away from people. What we should be doing—and this is the responsible position of this Government—is ensuring that the whole body of hate crime legislation is fit for purpose in the 21st century, including the 2012 act, which is the key piece of hate crime legislation.
Mr Ross’s second question was on disability hate crime, and I agree that there is much more to be done to ensure that people with a disability feel more comfortable in bringing forward their concerns. In that regard, I was very pleased to note the publication of the disability delivery plan by my colleague, Jeane Freeman, in early December last year. The plan sets out 93 actions, one of which is to ensure that the Scottish Government works with disabled people’s organisations and Police Scotland to do what we can to encourage more reporting of incidents of hate crime.