Justice 2 Committee, 22 Feb 2005
Meeting date: Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Official Report
187KB pdf
Petition
Pornography (PE752)
Item 3 on the agenda concerns petition PE752, by Catherine Harper on behalf of Scottish Women Against Pornography. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to define pornographic material as incitement to sexual hatred and to make such incitement an offence similar to that of incitement to racial hatred.
We have had a letter from Cathy Peattie, the convener of the Equal Opportunities Committee, which is considering the petition. Committee members will see from the accompanying papers that she is anxious to seek this committee's views.
There are basically two issues. First, the deliberations of the working group on hate crime, which the Scottish Executive established in the summer of 2003, would be relevant to discrimination against a particular social group, and the petition perhaps falls within that category. I think that there is an obligation on the Executive to review the criminal law on violence. The committee will see from Cathy Peattie's letter that she would like to know whether we have undertaken, or plan to undertake, any work of our own on the findings of the working group on hate crime.
Secondly, I draw the committee's attention to a previous petition—PE476—which came before the Justice 2 Committee in the previous session of the Parliament. The previous committee took no action on that petition, which was similar to PE752 because, at that time, the Executive was considering undertaking research on the links between violence against women and pornography.
Committee members should also have in their papers a copy of a letter from the previous Minister for Communities, Margaret Curran. The gist of the letter is that the minister confirms that the Executive does not propose to do further research on the links between violence against women and pornography but will keep the issue under review.
It is for the committee to decide what response it wants to make to the Equal Opportunities Committee. I am happy to invite members' comments.
I do not want to comment on our forward work plan, but the previous Justice 2 Committee agreed not to take petition PE476 further, because the Executive gave assurances vis-à-vis research. I hope that the Equal Opportunities Committee will ask whether the Executive intends to do anything with the recommendations of the working group on hate crime. If it does, it will have to consider further research evidence that would support the terms of the original petition. I do not think that that work on that is part of our work programme just now, but it would be helpful if that committee were to investigate it further.
That is helpful. I suggest that the clerk draft a letter to the convener of the Equal Opportunities Committee confirming that we have not undertaken work in this respect and that we have no plans to do so at the moment and stating that we think that it would be helpful if that committee were to make inquiries as to whether the Executive is working on proposals arising from the work of the working group on hate crime in relation to the petition. The clerk is happy to do that. Is that satisfactory?
Members indicated agreement.