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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

This promises to be yet another interesting and wide-ranging debate on an important issue. In moving the motions in the name of my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary let me make it clear to the House that the Government support Lords amendments Nos. 1 and 3, but not Lords amendments Nos. 2 and 4. The Bill was last debated in the House on 11 July 2005, on Report and Third Reading. A number of hon. Members expressed concerns, not so much about the Government’s policy aims, but about what they feared would be unintended consequences in relation to the freedom of expression. The Bill passed with a substantial majority, but further debate and Divisions in the other place resulted in substantial changes being made. The Lords amendments make four significant alterations. They separate the religious hatred offences from the racial hatred offences. They remove what was known as the ““likely limb””, so that only intentional behaviour will be caught. They insert a wide-ranging freedom of expression provision and remove the words ““abusive and insulting”” from the offence, so that only threatening speech and behaviour will be caught. Those changes considerably reduce the scope of the Bill, to the extent that, in our view, it would be virtually impossible to bring a successful prosecution.