Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 March 2021.

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Photo of Adam Tomkins Adam Tomkins Conservative

That is exactly the position of the Scottish Conservatives—I welcome Mr Findlay aboard. That would be the effect of amendment 6, which was moved by my friend and colleague Liam Kerr and was debated in the previous group.

Amendments 1 to 3 are three different ways of achieving the same policy ambition. My preference is for the first formulation, which provides that when considering whether behaviour was reasonable, as the bill requires the courts to do, the courts must have regard to the right to freedom of expression, including the general principle that that right extends

“to the expression of information or ideas that offend, shock or disturb.”

The formulation in amendment 1 has been carefully drafted. Its language is drawn directly from, and mirrors, the Human Rights Act 1998, article 10 of the ECHR itself, and the European Court’s key case law on free speech. As I said, the amendment is designed to sit alongside and to work with the cabinet secretary’s amendment 11. It writes into our law core principles of free speech that were unanimously accepted and endorsed by this Parliament’s all-party Justice Committee in its stage 1 report on the bill. I very much hope, therefore, that Parliament will be able to accept both my amendment 1 and the cabinet secretary’s amendment 11.