New Clause 6 - Police directions stopping the harassment etc of a person in his home
Criminal Justice and Police Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
We are in favour of disestablishment over a phased period. We are also in favour of the repeal of the blasphemy laws so that the Christian Church does not get more protection than other faiths. The Government said, on the record, that following a report from the university of Derby, which was due last October, I think, they would consider how to secure protection for people who are discriminated against or who feel that they are persecuted on the grounds of their faith. One reason why new clause 19 was tabled was to probe how far they have got with that. In a Committee last year, the Home Office Minister, the hon. Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O'Brien), said that we would receive the report in the autumn. We want to know what has happened.
There is already differentiation in law between certain types of crime. Parliament legislated under the present Government to treat people who were guilty of race hate crimes differently from other criminals. The hon. Member for South Thanet might have voted against those measures—I have not checked, but I doubt it, because the measures had general support across all the parties. There is at least a case for examining whether hate crimes on a wider basis—gender, sexual orientation or religion—should be given the same treatment in sentencing or when defining the aggravation of an offence.
If Muslims or Sikhs are attacked because they are Muslim or Sikh, for them the evil is the same as in a race crime. As happened in the Admiral Duncan, if people are targeted because they are thought to be gay by a madman, their perception is that they have been targeted because of their sexual orientation. The victims' experiences would be similar to those in race crimes. I raise the question because all parties have, to different degrees, promised to address race crimes and viewed them as particularly obnoxious. I believe that we have unfinished business on that, and this debate was the only opportunity in Committee of examining what the Government have achieved. I will be grateful for the Minister's considered reply.