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Question reference: S6W-06438

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 February 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2022

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-03293 by Shona Robison on 11 October 2021, what the current status is of its new hate crime strategy, and what further steps it will take to tackle Islamophobia in Scotland, in light of the recommendations in the Report of the inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland by the Cross-Party Group on Tackling Islamophobia.

On 23 December 2021 we published a report on implementation of the actions set out in the Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan (2017). The report shows encouraging progress has been made towards tackling hate crime in Scotland, with successful delivery of the vast majority of actions in the 2017 Action Plan.

Publication of this report allows the Scottish Government and partners to take stock of and refresh approaches to tackling hate crime. As such, and building on progress in this area, we will work with key delivery partners to develop a new hate crime strategy, for publication later this year. The new strategy will help guide how we tackle hatred and prejudice – including Islamophobia – in Scotland and will also support implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

We are in the process of convening a strategic partnership group to provide a robust, multi-agency approach to development of the new hate crime strategy. Consideration is also being given to other necessary engagements that will allow for a range of voices to shape the strategy as it develops. We would therefore like to reiterate our previous commitment to working collaboratively on Islamophobia, including on the range of issues highlighted within the report of the public inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland.