Meeting of the Parliament 07 June 2018
No, I will not, I am afraid. That would be the third intervention from the Scottish National Party, including the phone that went off earlier.
The reality is that, during the stage 3 debate, the minister was adamant that there would be a gap in the legislation, but the report states in black and white that
“hate crime offences committed in the context of a regulated football match held in Scotland could be prosecuted in Scotland under pre-existing criminal law.”
Lord Bracadale goes on to say that he is
“satisfied that there is no gap in the law”—
which is what I and so many others pointed out at the time. It is unlikely that an apology—no matter how much it is merited—will be offered, but a degree of contrition and reflection on past and future choices of words by some members is perhaps warranted.
Hate crime is particularly harmful to victims and communities. As Rania Hamad has said,
“research indicates that the emotional and psychological trauma caused by hate crime is heightened compared with other types of crime due to the offending often being related to the ‘core’ of the person’s identity, and vicarious trauma can be experienced by those who share the same identity characteristics as the victim such as family or community members.”
Therefore, it must be countered. The first step to achieving that is to know and understand what we are dealing with. The report enables that, and I again thank Lord Bracadale for compiling it.
I said at the beginning of my speech that we must have the legislation that we need to tackle hate crime. We must tackle prejudice at its root, adequately punish and deter offenders and stand up for victims of hate across Scotland. We may disagree about some of the recommendations in the report, but I suspect that we can all agree on that. I look forward to hearing members’ views.