- Tories issue new warning over legislation that ‘polices free speech’
Humza Yousaf was yesterday warned that new hate crime legislation is a ‘disaster in the making’ and will be a shambles from day one.
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, passed by MSPs in 2021, creates a new offence of stirring up hatred based on protected characteristics – matching a similar offence involving race that is already on the statute books.
The law, which consolidates other hate crime regulations, will come into force on April 1 but it has sparked controversy, particularly around the potential impact on free speech.
Humza Yousaf was warned that new hate crime legislation is a ‘disaster in the making’
At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Mr Yousaf said ‘a lot of disinformation’ had been spread about the Act.
But Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said his party ‘opposed the legislation at the time and still oppose it now because of the impact it has on free speech for people across this country’.
Mr Ross added: ‘Officers have had just a few hours’ training for a very complex and controversial law. Officers are being told not to investigate actual crimes, but instead they will have to look for the “Hate Monster” and police free speech. Criminals will be let off, while innocent people are prosecuted.
‘Humza Yousaf is setting the police up for failure and undermining public trust in policing. He is putting frontline officers in an impossible position by forcing them to police free speech. Huge numbers of the public could be monitored by the police, or even criminalised, when they have done nothing wrong.
‘Humza Yousaf introduced this unworkable and dangerous law when he was justice secretary. Now he’s bringing it into force as First Minister. This is a disaster in the making. It criminalises free speech. It risks a fundamental right. It is overreach by the SNP into people’s homes. It’s set to be a shambles from day one.
‘Humza Yousaf has created another bad SNP law that will quickly descend into chaos.’
Under the law, offences are considered aggravated if they involve prejudice on the basis of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variation in sex characteristics.
The ‘stirring up hatred’ offence – which previously applied only to race – will extend to private homes, meaning dinner party conversations could be criminalised.
Mr Yousaf claimed there was a ‘triple lock’ in the Act to preserve freedom of expression – including an explicit clause, a defence for the accused’s behaviour being ‘reasonable’ and the Act being compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
He told MSPs: ‘There has been a lot of disinformation that has been spread on social media and some inaccurate media reporting, and indeed by our political opponents, so I’m hoping in this exchange we can shed more light than heat on what is actually in the Act as oppo-sed to what is being said about it.’
Stirring up hatred offences were ‘nothing new in Scotland’ said the SNP leader, adding: ‘If I have the protection against somebody stirring up hatred because of my race – and that has been the case since 1986 – why on earth should these protections not exist for someone because of their sexuality, or disability, or their religion?’
He argued there was a ‘very high threshold’ to be met for prosecution and addressed concerns that the short amount of training given to officers meant the force would not be able to comply with the intention of the law.
The Scottish Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, has warned that the force can barely deal with existing crimes and branded the new legislation a ‘recipe for disaster’.
Labour MSP Pauline Thompson raised concern that the law could be used by some ‘maliciously to silence legitimate opinion’.
Nationalist MSP Ivan McKee suggested the mention of young working class men being more likely to fall foul of the Act risked ‘demonising a disadvantaged group already heavily impacted by negative interactions with the justice system’.
Mr Yousaf said any messaging should not ‘pit communities against each other’.
It came as Scotland’s Chief Constable yesterday defended a vow to investigate every ‘hate crime’ while at the same time instructing officers to write off thousands of minor offences every year.
Jo Farrell told the Scottish Police Authority the force had provided training to officers allowing them to enforce the new law ‘in a measured way using their discretion and common sense’.
