Scotland's hate crime laws explained

New hate crime laws in Scotland are controversial. It’s becoming a criminal offence to stir up hatred against people from certain protected characteristics. We’ve always had laws about stirring up hate against people because of their racial background. Now the law has been expanded to include lots of other groups who are protected because of age, disability, sexuality, transgender and so on. Have now got this charge that can be brought if people are threatening or abusive towards this person because they’re part of that group and they’re attempting to stir up hatred against that particular group. The police here have been running a big campaign to prepare for the changes. The Heat Monster lunche. If you need to, you’re better than them. Then, before you know it, you’ve committed a hate crime. Scott’s will be able to make a hate crime complaint at hundreds of locations across the country, including a bus station, libraries, a fish factory in the Borders and even a sex shop in Glasgow. Those who support the legislation say it will make Scotland more tolerant. So this legislation is not going to people online saying things that might disagree with, that you might disagree with, things that might upset me, things that might upset others in the community. Freedom of expression is really important and there’s a defence for that within the legislation. What it does legislate against is when that freedom of speech strays into something that is abusive. That could cause fear and alarm, and that also incites hatred or incites people to act on that hatred. Others, though, think it’s draconian, and it could stifle free speech, including women’s groups involved in the transgender rights debate. That there are people out there who have got lists of people that they are looking to target, that they are seeing this as an opportunity to settle scores and make political points. Police Scotland has promised to investigate every single hate crime complaint that comes in. At the same time, officers are saying that due to budget cuts they won’t investigate some minor crimes. But there are also some serious concerns about the level of training those officers are getting for this legislation. If they’re on night shift mandatory 2 hour online training that will have to go onto computer and sit in front of the computer and do the training and they expected to implement this new law based on that. Have real concerns that mistakes can be made. There is no doubt that this will help marginalised communities. But others believe that this is yet another debate about personal freedoms in this country and once again the Scottish Government finds itself at the centre of controversial legislation.