LGBT+ and disabled victims would be given the same protection as those targeted because of their race and religion, under a shake-up of hate crime legislation recommended by the Law Commission
In 2020/21, there were 10,679 prosecutions and 9,263 convictions for hate crimes in England and Wales. However, crimes involving racial or religious hostility can be treated as ‘aggravated offences’ and receive higher maximum sentences than the base offence, whereas crimes involving hostility on the basis of the victim’s sexual orientation, trans identity or disability qualify for ‘enhanced sentencing’ which increases the sentence, but only within the existing maximum. The commission proposes that the five characteristics be protected equally.
The proposals, announced this week, would also increase protection for women and girls by extending the offence of stirring up hatred (behaviour that incites others to hate entire groups) to cover sex or gender. This is aimed at tackling ‘incel’ (involuntarily celibate) ideology, following an increase in rape and murder threats against women from incels.
The commission recommends the government consider a new offence of public sexual harassment, which it believes would provide more effective protection than adding sex or gender to hate crime laws.
It also proposes tightening up freedom of expression laws, and would safeguard private conversations regardless of where they take place and ‘neutral reporting’ by
journalists of inflammatory hate speech. It proposes providing explicit protection for certain controversial topics―‘gender critical’ views, criticism of foreign governments and discussion of cultural practices and immigration, asylum and citizenship policy.
While hate speech and ‘stirring up’ offences (for example, racist chanting at football matches) receive a lot of public attention, the Commission highlights that the threshold for prosecution is high, and there are fewer than ten prosecutions in a typical year. There is currently no ‘stirring up’ offence for hate speech on the basis of disability or trans identity.
Law Commissioner, Prof Penney Lewis said: ‘Hate crime has a terrible impact on victims and it’s unacceptable that the current levels of protection are so inconsistent.
‘Our recommendations would improve protections for victims while also ensuring that the right of freedom of expression is safeguarded.’
