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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do not insist on its Amendment No. 285, to which the Commons have disagreed for their Reason 285A. This is our final group. I welcome the opportunity to come back to debate this important question, on which we had an interesting and informed debate rather late at night on the third day of Report. That question has now been debated in the other place, which, having disagreed with your Lordships’ amendment by a large margin, has now sent it back to us for further consideration. It is clearly right that we should take this matter very seriously indeed. Of course, I have looked carefully at the matter raised by noble Lords in our debates. The question before us is whether we have the balance right between the necessity of protecting targeted groups and the necessity of ensuring freedom of speech. The Government do not believe that any behaviour that is threatening and that is intended to stir up hatred needs special protection because of considerations of free speech. Only behaviour that is threatening and that is intended to stir up hatred is covered by the Bill. If such behaviour is neither threatening nor intended to stir up hatred, it is not covered by the Bill. We think that we have the balance right, as does the Joint Committee on Human Rights. We have had many, many happy days debating the Bill and on many occasions noble Lords have quoted the excellent report by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, so it is right that I pray in aid its judgment on this matter. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, too, believes that we have the balance right, as does the other place. I am sure that we shall hear again the concerns about the risk of heavy-handed police enforcement. A number of cases have been mentioned where it is alleged that overzealous behaviour has occurred. Concern was expressed when we last debated this about what guidance would be available to the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the public about this offence. I will take this opportunity to clarify those matters. My understanding is that the Crown Prosecution Service will issue a policy bulletin and legal guidance on the new offence. The CPS legal guidance provides prosecutors with an online source of information on legislation and policy on a range of legal issues. The CPS legal guidance is accessible to the public on the CPS website. There is existing CPS guidance on the offence of incitement to religious hatred, which came into effect on 1 October last year. There is a policy bulletin and updated internal CPS legal guidance. In addition, CPS prosecution policy on racist and religious crime, first published in July 2003, is being revised and will soon be reissued. It will address the new offence of incitement to religious hatred. The police will also have advice in a revised manual of hate crime. The current manual covers crimes motivated by hate, but it is being revised and will include crimes of incitement to hatred. In addition, we of course have been listening carefully to the concerns expressed here and in the other place about what I have described as heavy-handedness. The Government, therefore, in seeking to meet those matters, are bringing forward an amendment to place on a statutory footing a duty on the Secretary of State to issue guidance. That will ensure that appropriate guidance about the offence is available for all interested parties. The guidance that my department will issue will reiterate that the only behaviour covered by the offence is behaviour that is threatening and intended to stir up hatred. It will take account of all the points that have been made in debate here and in the other place. The measure that we are debating does not seek to make the holding of certain views or opinions illegal; it concentrates on behaviour. Threatening behaviour intended to stir up hatred is a real risk to public order and ought to be challenged. Of course, it will ultimately be for the courts to decide whether the offence is proven in a particular case, but, as I said in my introductory remarks, behaviour that is not threatening and not intended to stir up hatred is plainly not covered by the offence. The guidance will reiterate all this. I and the Government have listened carefully to the speeches of the noble Lord, Lord Waddington, and other noble Lords. We think that we can take care of those matters by the way in which the offence has been constructed and the issue of guidance. On that basis, I invite the House to support my Motion. Moved, That the House do not insist on its Amendment No. 285, to which the Commons have disagreed for their Reason 285A.—(Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.)