Yes, I will make some brief opening remarks.
As you say, convener, it is unusual for a cabinet secretary or minister to attend at this stage, so I thank the committee for being so accommodating and allowing me to give evidence on the bill. I will talk about the proposed amendments that I announced to Parliament on 23 September, but it is worth giving the briefest of overviews of the purpose of the bill and its background.
Effective hate crime legislation makes it very clear to victims, perpetrators and wider society that offences that are motivated by prejudice are completely unacceptable and will be treated seriously. I am committed to taking this opportunity to shape the legislation so that it is fit for the 21st century and, most importantly, affords sufficient protections to those who need it but at the same time continues to give people reassurance around their important freedoms of expression.
Legislation on hate crime has evolved over time in a quite fragmented manner, and it is not as user-friendly as it could or should be. The bill provides for the modernisation, consolidation and extension of hate crime legislation in Scotland and is very much based on the independent review by Lord Bracadale and further consultation following his recommendations.
In short, the bill seeks to modernise and extend hate crime legislation by including age as an additional characteristic; creating new offences relating to stirring up hatred that will apply in relation to each of the characteristics; updating the definition of transgender identity, including removing the term “intersexuality” and creating a separate category for variation in sex characteristics; and including a power to enable a characteristic of sex to be added to the list of characteristics at a later date, if for example that is recommended by the working group on misogynistic harassment.
The group that I have just mentioned will be established to consider how the justice system currently deals with misogyny. The group will specifically consider whether a stand-alone offence to tackle misogynistic behaviour is required in our criminal law and whether the characteristic of sex is required in the hate crime legislative framework. The appointment of the working group chair will reflect the expertise that those important issues demand and will ensure that gender equality, human rights and of course the law are given equal weighting.
A participative approach will be integral to that work, and I am committed to ensuring that membership of the working group reflects a wide breadth of opinion, diversity, knowledge and experience that reflects the complexity of the issue at hand. Appointment arrangements for a chair are currently in train. I will update Parliament on that and the group’s terms of reference very shortly.
In relation to the amendments that I proposed on 23 September, I do not propose to make adjustments to the threshold for the stirring up of racial hatred offences, which have been part of our criminal law in the whole of the United Kingdom for decades, in the form that is provided for in the bill.
The decision on the proposed change to the operation of the new stirring-up offences is not one that was arrived at lightly. I listened to and discussed the matter with a number of stakeholders, politicians and political parties, with the aim of seeking to strike a more appropriate balance between respecting freedoms of expression while protecting people who are impacted by those who deliberately set out to stir up hatred.
I am pleased that a broad range of organisations, including the Faculty of Advocates, the Law Society of Scotland, the Humanist Society of Scotland and the Catholic Church, have welcomed the change whereby only the intent to stir up hatred will apply to the new offences and the “likely” limb will be removed.
That change will affect consideration of ancillary issues, such as the operation of the “reasonable” defence and areas of the freedom of expression. Those provisions were included in the bill in the context of offences that could be committed where hatred was “likely” to be stirred up. As the bill undergoes the scrutiny process, I will engage with Parliament and stakeholders to consider whether it would benefit from further changes.
I reassure members that I will seek common ground, consensus and, where necessary, compromise. Since the bill was introduced, I have met more than 50 organisations from a broad range of sectors to discuss its implications. It is, of course, for the Parliament and primarily the Justice Committee to scrutinise the bill and to decide exactly where the appropriate balance lies between effectively tackling hate crime to protect the people who are targeted from its insidious effects and protecting people’s legitimate right to freedom of expression. I believe that those two aims are not mutually exclusive.
I am happy to take questions.