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Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

Possibly in a moment. I want to make some further progress. I shall turn to the issue of ““threatening, abusive and insulting””. The Government have made it clear throughout that to have only ““threatening”” as the threshold for the offence would not capture the type of behaviour that we are seeking to outlaw. We have of course taken a serious look at our position on this issue, particularly in the light of the deep concerns expressed in the other place. However, our clear conclusion is that nothing less than the reinstatement of ““abusive and insulting”” will make the offence viable. The racial offence has contained the words ““threatening, abusive and insulting”” for 20 years without creating any difficulty of interpretation. It is, for instance, an offence to use abusive and insulting words or behaviour to stir up hatred against Sikhs, and it would simply not be right for there to be a lower level of protection for Muslims, Christians and members of other faith groups.