On 1 April 2024, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 entered into force. To say that there has been controversy in the two weeks since its coming into force would be an understatement. However, what is clear from the public discourse that’s taken place in the run-up to implementation and in the two weeks since it was implemented is that it is a very misunderstood piece of legislation.

Background to the Act

The concept of hate crime is not new in this country. There has been an offence of stirring up racial hatred in Scotland for more than 35 years. An offence of stirring up racial hatred was inserted into the Public Order Act 1936 by the Race Relations Act 1976. It was then re-enacted in the Public Order Act 1986 and has again, insofar as Scotland is concerned (the 1986 Act offence still applying to England and Wales), in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

There have been other “hate crime” provisions within Scots law, such as the offence of racially-aggravated harassment within the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995.

In addition to those offences there have been statutory aggravations, such as a racial aggravation in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, religious prejudice under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 and disability, transgender identity and sexual orientation in the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009.

In 2017 Lord Bracadale (a retired judge of the High Court of Justiciary and the Court of Session and also a prosecutor in his career at the Scottish Bar) was appointed by the then Community Safety Minister to carry out an independent review of hate crime legislation in Scotland. Lord Bracadale published his report in 2018 and the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 largely follows the recommendations made by Lord Bracadale (although, not entirely).

What does the Act do?

The Act does a number of things. Firstly, the Act is consolidating legislation. What this means, essentially, is that it has taken all of the existing provisions in relation to “hate crime” and re-enacted them into one place. It is now no longer necessary to look at lots of different pieces of legislation to locate the legislative provisions on “hate crime” insofar as it relates to Scotland (as can be seen above, the provisions that existed prior to the 2021 Act were scattered across a number of different pieces of legislation).

Section 1 of the Act consolidates the provisions concerning offences aggravated by prejudice. However, it does add in a new characteristic which had not previously been covered by the law: age (this was a recommendation made by Lord Bracadale in his report). With that exception, the law in relation to offences aggravated by prejudice did not change on 1 April 2024.

It is important to note that section 1 is not a “standalone provision”; it relates to the aggravation of an offence. In other words, for it to apply there must first have been an offence committed. So, for example, if someone assaulted another person because of their religious affiliation (or perceived religious affiliation) then that person could be charged with an assault and the summary complaint or indictment could also contain an aggravation of religious prejudice. This means that, in this example, if the finder of fact (a Summary Sheriff or Sheriff in the case of a summary complaint or a jury in the case of an indictment) decides that the accused assaulted the complainer they would then need to consider whether the assault was aggravated by religious prejudice. Unlike the assault, the aggravation does not need to be corroborated (in other words the evidence of one witness would be sufficient to enable them to find the aggravation proved); this is not a change in the law either: an aggravation did not need corroboration before 1 April 2024 either.

If the finder of fact found that the assault was aggravated, section 2 of the Act means that the offence must be treated more seriously by the courts: in other words, the court is required to impose a harsher sentence on the accused than would be justified if the assault had not been aggravated by prejudice. If the finder of fact decided that the assault had not happened, then the aggravation also falls away: the aggravation cannot exist without the offence (but the offence can exist without the aggravation).

The aggravations do not just apply to an assault. In theory any offence could be aggravated by prejudice by reference to one of the characteristics listed in section 1. It could be murder, a breach of the peace or the crime of threatening or abusive behaviour under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

Section 3 re-enacts the offence that used to be in section 50A of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 of racially-aggravated harassment.

Section 4 is where there has been the most controversy. Section 4 deals with the “stirring up” offences. Section 4 contains, in effect, two separate offences. The first re-enacts the decades old provisions in relation to stirring up racial hatred. This relates to situations where someone acts in a manner, or communicates material to another person, which a reasonable person would consider to be threatening, abusive or insulting and (i) in doing so the person intends to stir up hatred against a group of persons based on the group being defined by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or national origins OR (ii) a reasonable person would consider the behaviour or the communication of the material to be likely to result in hatred being stirred up against such a group.

The other offence created is stirring up hatred on the grounds of the characteristics of age, disability, religion (or, in the case of a social or cultural group, perceived religious affiliation), sexual orientation, transgender identity or variations in sex characteristics. This is new in Scotland (England and Wales, they do have a stirring up offence in relation to religion and sexual orientation in the Public Order Act 1986). The offence is essentially the same as the religious hatred one, but in relation to the other characteristics “insulting” does not appear – only “threatening or abusive.” The offences are not about causing offence, or being rude or anything like that. The conduct in question has to be more than that; it has to be likely to cause the reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm. The police and courts in Scotland are very much used to dealing with the concept of “threatening or abusive” behaviour given there is an offence of threatening or abusive behaviour”.

However, for the this offence to be committed, it has to go further than merely being threatening or abusive. The accused has to intend stir up hatred against a group of persons by reference to the characteristic of age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variations in sex characteristics. That being said, behaviour which as merely threatening or abusive and was motivated by prejudice on the grounds of age, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or variations in sex characteristics a person could be prosecuted for threatening or abusive behaviour under the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 with the appropriate aggravation under section 1 of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

What about free speech?

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom of expression, including the right to hold opinions and to impart information and ideas. However, it is not an absolute right. It is recognised in the Convention that there may require to be limits on free speech when balancing against other legitimate interests. For example, defamation laws are a restriction on free speech, but it is right and proper that people are able to seek recourse when they have been defamed. There were also already existed restrictions on free speech in the criminal law prior to 1 April 2024: the offence of stirring up racial hatred is, as pointed out earlier in this post, one that has existed for a long time. The offence of threatening or abusive behaviour in section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 can be a restriction on free speech if it relates to things that are spoken or written. A breach of the peace can be a restriction on free speech if it relates to things that are written or spoken. Those are just a few examples, there are others.

There are specific protections within the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 in relation to free speech. Section 9 of the Act sets out certain protections. Furthermore, the police, the Procurator Fiscal, the Lord Advocate and courts are all public authorities for the purposes of the Human Rights Act 1998 and cannot act incompatibly with people’s “convention rights” (being the rights from the European Convention on Human Rights listed within the Human Rights Act 1998). In exercising their powers and authority, each has to ensure that they are acting compatibly with, amongst other things, a person’s right to freedom of expression (and, indeed, their (qualified) right to respect for their private and family life).

What is missing?

It has been suggested that the non-inclusion of sex as one of the characteristics, particularly in relation to stirring up offence, is an omission on the part of the Scottish Parliament.

Lord Bracadale recommended in his report that sex be included, but the Scottish Government, when framing the Bill that became the Act, decided not to include it. That is a policy decision for which they are accountable and whether they were right to take that decision or not is not something that I am going to comment on in this post – it would be opinion rather than analysis of the statute. However, it is worth noting that the Scottish Government has said it is looking at the issue and that section 12 of the 2021 confers a power on the Scottish Ministers to add sex into the Act by way of regulations (so, if the Scottish Government were to decide to add sex in, it could be done relatively quickly without having to pass a new Act).

Is the Act unclear?

Another criticism that has been made of the Act is that it is unclear or vague in some sense. Those criticisms are, again, in my opinion, unfounded. All of the provisions within the Act either already existed within Scots law and have been applied time and again by police, prosecutors and the courts or build upon those provisions which have existed in the law for a long time.

Conclusion

In short, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Act. Much of it has been ill-informed (not helped by pronouncements made by Ministers and the police in the run-up to the Act coming into force which did not reflect the wording of the Statute). Little of the controversy has any sound basis in the text of the Act (the words used in the statute are what matter; those words and their meaning cannot be changed by way of statements made by Ministers or police officers – no matter how senior). Being offensive, even deliberately so, is not likely to result in a charge under the 2021 Act. However, if conduct were to be threatening or abusive then this may amount to an offence under other legislation.

A lot of what is contained within the Hate Crime and Public Order Act 2021 is not new, and the bits that are new are, essentially, extensions of what already existed. Those new bits are also based upon recommendations made following an independent review of the law in this area.

It is highly likely that the effects of the Act have been considerably overstated and that, in fact, the numbers of people caught by the 2021 Act will not be much greater than under the laws that went before it (although, recognition has to be given to the bits that are actually new and the likely effect that might have overall on the number of people caught by the 2021 Act). Holding and expressing, for example, gender critical beliefs would not, on its own, pass the criminal threshold. The conduct would have to go further: it would have to go into the realm of being likely to cause the reasonable person (that is, the ordinary man or woman on the street) fear or alarm. Referring to a trans man as a woman or a trans woman as a man, on its own, would not cross the threshold; again, something more would be required. Whether the behaviour is threatening or abusive is an objective test, not a subjective one. While the feelings of the complainer may be relevant, they are not determinative. What matters is whether the conduct would be likely to cause the reasonable person fear or alarm.  

Disclaimer: This post is for information purposes only and nothing in it should be taken as constituting legal advice.