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Coroners and Justice Bill

Last year, we were told that the Waddington amendment was unnecessary, and we are now told that its removal will not affect the threshold required for the offence to be made. In other words, it does not make much difference either way. That may be true, although I think it is arguable. However, the making and unmaking of laws has a symbolic significance going far beyond the strict letter of the law itself. This, after all, was the real justification for the necessary and welcome introduction of a specific criminalisation of incitement to hatred on the ground of sexual orientation. After all, the new offence was not strictly a new offence and it is unlikely to lead to the conviction of anyone who could not perfectly satisfactorily be convicted on the grounds of other laws already in force. The main point of what we did in this House and the other place last year was, importantly, symbolic rather than strictly necessary. However, it was important to send a clear and specific signal, and that is what the amendment to the Public Order Act did. So, too, the Government’s ill judged attempt today to omit the section inserted by your Lordships’ House last year is primarily symbolic. Whatever the strictly logical position, and regardless of whether last year’s amendment was strictly necessary, its removal now would be of huge symbolic significance. It would correctly be seen as lowering the level of protection afforded for legitimate debate about matters of profound social as well as personal importance. This is especially so when we see it alongside the continuing protection offered by the law in respect of freedom of discussion about religion. The parallel is bound to be drawn and people will ask why there is a difference. Noble Lords will have their own take on the strictly legal case to be made for or against this amendment, but I do not think that we should be in any doubt but that its defeat would cause a shudder of fear in everyone who values freedom of speech and open discussion. It is not always easy to balance freedoms—or indeed rights, as the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, said—but that is what is really at stake in the debate.