SERVING police officers and legal experts have highlighted concerns with the Scottish Government’s embattled Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill.
Yesterday, senior lawyers and police officers gave evidence to MSPs on Holyrood’s Justice Committee.
They expressed gratitude for a concession by Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf regarding “stirring up hatred” offences in the bill.
However, concerns were raised that the term “abusive” is too subjective and could lead to merely offensive speech being caught by the “stirring up” provisions.
Roddy Dunlop QC, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, argued that if there is “any doubt” about the meaning of the term, there “couldn’t be any objection to an amendment to make it clearer”.
Michael Clancy, director of law reform at the Law Society of Scotland, added: “If we leave this bill without any specific definition there might be a question as to why.”
READ MORE: Free speech protections taken into consideration in Scottish Hate Crime Bill
Calum Steele, head of the Scottish Police Federation, said it would probably be helpful if an “objective test” was written into the legislation.
He warned that there could be a “clamour” for the police’s reach to go much further than the original offence intended, saying “things that are insulting could easily be redefined from insulting to abusive to meet the criminal test”.
Steele added that it “creates a fairly hefty administrative burden on the police service” that is not reflected and the costs of new legislation are often “grossly underestimated” by MSPs.
The Federation’s concerns largely relate to “grey areas”, noting that conversations at home on contentious issues could be repeated by children in the classroom and lead to a report to the police.
Commenting on current provisions, which protect “discussion and criticism” of religion and sexual orientation, Clancy said these are “very wide concepts”.
READ MORE: The age of rage: Why there will be no return to ‘normal’ in a time of widespread hate
Assistant chief constable Gary Ritchie said it is “helpful for police officers to have that freedom of expression provision in there” but added it’s “always more helpful to us if the people we’re policing understand the legislation”.
“If it’s laid out in clear terms about what is permitted and what’s not that’s helpful just purely in terms of engagement with people.”
The Scottish Government welcomed the scrutiny. A spokesperson said: “Following the Cabinet Secretary’s announcement of changes to the new stirring up hatred offences, he made clear at the Justice Committee last week he was open-minded as to the need to consider further changes where required.
“This must be done in a way that ensures freedom of expression is respected while allowing victims to be effectively protected from the insidious and corrosive effects of hate crime.”
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