SNP’s ‘unworkable’ hate crime law should be withdrawn, says former top judge

Women’s and trans rights groups hold opposing protests in Edinburgh – Chris Strickland

The SNP’s new hate crime law is unworkable and should be withdrawn, Scotland’s former most senior judge has said.

Lord Hope of Craighead, a former deputy president of the Supreme Court, accused ministers of engaging in “gesture politics”, leading to the legislation being widely misunderstood.

Police Scotland have been deluged with more than 8,000 complaints since the act came into force on April 1, many of which officers believe were made to fuel personal or political vendettas.

Ahead of its introduction, the public were urged by Police Scotland and the Government to report all incidents they perceived as being motivated by “hate”.

Lord Hope of Craighead said ‘hate crime is a most unfortunate name for the bill’

Lord Hope said an impression had been created that all forms of hate had been criminalised, which is not the case.

“Hate crime is a most unfortunate name for the Bill,” Lord Hope said. “It raises all sorts of thoughts in people’s minds, without any idea of what the Bill is actually saying.

“I have no complaint with the intention of the Bill. But it has misfired because it uses a very provocative title that leads people to think there’s more in it than there really is, when you read through the detail.”

He added: “I think it’s unworkable if the police are going to have to administer this, because they have the burden of sifting and recording a myriad of complaints by people who are not really aware of the details of the legislation.”

Lord Hope, 85, who was Scotland’s most senior judge as Lord Justice General between 1989 and 1996, went on to serve as deputy president of the UK Supreme Court between 2009 and 2013.

He said the hate crime law would create an “extraordinary burden” on police because of obligations to record and report each offence, including the protected characteristics of the complainant.

Being forced to sift through a “myriad of complaints” from people ignorant of the details of the law would render it “unworkable”, he claimed.

“It’s an extraordinary position,” he told The Times. “I’ve not seen anything like this before, and it’s no wonder the police are being deluged in trying to carry it out.

“The gesture politics here has meant sending out a message that has been misunderstood by people who don’t grasp the qualifications and protections contained in the act, and that is causing problems for the police”.

He quoted the Telegraph columnist, Fraser Nelson, who has claimed that “Scotland is now the world’s laboratory for bad ideas”.

The Hate Crime Act consolidated existing laws and introduced offences of “stirring up hatred” against groups including trans people, cross-dressers, the disabled and the elderly.

Lord Hope claimed a more effective course of action would have been to amend existing public order legislation.

SNP figures have blamed “misinformation” about the law for problems with its introduction. However, critics of the legislation said they could not dismiss such a stinging intervention from someone of Lord Hope’s stature.

“David Hope is possibly the greatest Scottish legal brain of his generation,” Murdo Fraser, the Tory MSP, said. “If he’s saying this, the SNP have got it far wrong.”

‘Fatally flawed law’ 

Sharon Dowey MSP, Scottish Conservative deputy justice spokesman, said: “This is a devastating critique of Humza Yousaf’s shambolic hate crime law by one of Scotland’s most senior legal figures.

“Lord Hope correctly identifies the naivety underpinning this unworkable SNP legislation and the intolerable strain it is putting on Scotland’s over-stretched police force and wider legal system.

“That’s why he – like the Scottish Conservatives – is calling for it to be scrapped.

“This fatally flawed law should never have seen the light of day but was inexplicably passed with Labour and Lib Dem support.

“In little over a week since its introduction, it has been denounced by police officers, legal experts and the Scottish public. Humza Yousaf must swallow his pride, do the right thing and bin it before it causes any further damage.”

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.

‘Not illegal to be an a–hole’

Meanwhile, Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer said the Scottish Government’s Hate Crime Act had not made it illegal to “be an a–hole”.

Speaking to the BBC Podlitical podcast, Mr Greer –  a senior member of the Scottish Greens – said it had not been made illegal to be unpleasant or offensive.

“It’s not illegal to be an a–hole now,” he said.

“It was not illegal to be an a–hole before and for the last week it has still not been illegal to be an a–hole.”

But he added: “That doesn’t mean that you should be.”

Mr Greer, 29, stressed that he was not specifically referring to JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author who has been outspoken about the new law, but was making a generalisation.

He continued: “Just because it is still legal to be offensive doesn’t mean you should go out of your way to be offensive.

“There are plenty of things that it’s not illegal to do, but that in a decent society we don’t generally encourage people to do.

“We should all be trying to be as pleasant and decent to each other as possible, whether the law allows for it or not.

“I think as a society we should hold ourselves to a higher standard than the criminal law.

“If the highest standard we can set for ourselves and each other is the criminal law – that’s an abysmally low standard.”

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