The Scottish Government’s new Hate Crime Bill has faced criticism from the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Police Federation because it could threaten freedom of speech. The bill has received almost 2,000 written submissions during its consultation process, more than any previous piece of legislation and a recent poll of local councillors found that even among the SNP only 46% supported it. Why has this bill attracted so much controversy, and is it justified?
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, to give it its full title, seeks to modernise and consolidate existing hate crime legislation and adds a person's age to the list of protected characteristics, with hatred based on someone's sex potentially to be added in the future. There is, of course, no objection to legislation that seeks to protect individuals from being attacked because of immutable characteristics such as their age, sex, sexuality, race or gender identity. The issue is with some of the new definitions of hate crime that are being proposed.
One section in the bill would make 'stirring up hate' a punishable offence, but it fails to stipulate precisely what this term means. As such, the phrase is open to interpretation, meaning it could be used to justify draconian restrictions on political expression and critique. The Law Society of Scotland has welcomed the move to consolidate existing legislation but has warned that new, more pliable, definitions of hate speech would require judicial clarification on a case by case basis.
The Scottish Police Federation has also expressed reservations about the bill. Enforcement would be difficult given the ambiguity of the bill's language and forcing officers to ‘police speech’ could seriously harm public relations. The significant increase in police workloads could prove a distraction from other essential duties such as violent crime prevention. General Secretary of the Federation, Calum Steele has questioned whether many officers would even be willing to regulate what is said in private.
The Scottish Conservative Friends of BAME (SCBAME) has made it clear that they will not support any attempt to curtail freedom of speech. Hate crime legislation that curtails free expression harms all sections of society, including those it is supposed to protect. Various religious organisations are clearly uneasy about the implications of the bill. The secular group Atheist Scotland has even joked that, if made law, the bill would allow for the criminalisation of any religious text considered objectionable.