Question reference: S6W-03292
- Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 23 September 2021
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 8 October 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the report of the public inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland, whether it will adopt a formal definition of Islamophobia to promote understanding, encourage reporting, and indicate a commitment to addressing Islamophobia.
Answer
Our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan includes a number of actions around raising awareness of hate crime and to encourage reporting. For information, a full list of action commitments in this area can be found at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/06/1336/5 . We will publish a report on progress made in delivering those actions during the coming months.
Implementation of the Hate Crime Act provides a good opportunity for the Scottish Government, justice partners and stakeholders to take stock of and refresh our approach to tackling hate crime and we are committed to developing a new hate crime strategy later this year. The new strategy will support implementation of the Hate Crime Act, as well as further work to consider the need for the Scottish Government to define Islamophobia, including consideration of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group’s definition.