Latest News Of The Racial And Religious Hatred Bill“Just as we thought there might be a moment to ‘breathe’ in our opposition to the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill so the Government are now seeking to agree compromise amendments before Christmas which will not provide the safeguards required in order to protect freedom of expression and the Christian’s freedom to preach the Gospel,” writes Andrea Minichiello Williams, Lawyers Christian Fellowship Public Policy Officer.
It is vital the Christian community continues to mount pressure on the Government, and on the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to hold firm in their opposition.
Back to the Lords 19 December
The 19th of December has been set as the provisional date for the 3rd and final Reading in the Lords. This is earlier than expected and may show the government is still determined to push the Bill through as quickly as possible. The concern is that when the Bill goes through the Lords on the 19th, the government will strategically try and rush it through the first stage in the Commons on the 20th – the very last day of the Parliamentary session before the Christmas holiday.
The other fear is that because a lot of Lords may already have left Westminster before the 19th, the government may try and use this to their advantage to win the vote in the Lords. These are both matters for prayer.
The next Commons vote
Providing the Bill gets sent back to the Commons by the Lords (as it is expected), the MPs do not return to Parliament till the 9th January and so the critical vote in the Commons will not be till shortly after that (quite possibly within a few days of that date). This means that it is that there is probably only one month or so left to lobby MPs and to explain the flaws in the Bill.
Government amendments offer no real safeguard
Significantly, it looks almost certain that the Government are not going to agree to the Lords’ amendments (the ‘Lester amendments’) to the Bill. They are putting forward their own amendments. This may give the impression that they are willing to compromise. However, the amendments they are putting forward will not give any firm additional safeguards for Christians:
Firstly, it seems almost certain that the Government will maintain the low threshold of the offence such that it can be committed if words are only ‘abusive or insulting’ as well as the higher threshold of words, which are ‘threatening’.
Secondly, the Government are not going to accept that ‘intent’ should be a requirement of the offence – they do not agree that it is necessary for someone to intend to stir up hatred in order to be prosecuted. This means that innocent people who have only a good motive for saying what they do could still be prosecuted.
The government have agreed that if people did not intend to stir up hatred that they may be entitled to a defence, if what they said was part of a religious debate, was said in order to try and convert someone to a different religion etc. However, the confusing way the defence has been written means that it may well technically be ineffective and offer little protection.
The anticipated government proposals do amend the original Bill slightly by requiring some level of guilty mind for a person to be prosecuted. Rather than needing to intend hatred to be stirred up, the government have probably decided to make it a requirement that a person was ‘reckless’ to whether or not hatred will be stirred up by their words.
In law, the definition of ‘recklessness’ is a difficult one. It is likely that it will simply mean that when the person said something which stirred up hatred or was likely to stir up hatred, they were aware that there was a possibility that hatred would be stirred up. This offers almost no protection. Even if a pastor is as careful with his words as possible and does not in any way intend to stir up hatred, if he knows that some of the people listening to his words will be easily insulted and therefore there is a risk that hatred will be stirred up, that is enough for a prosecution.
Pray and write
“Once again we would urge you to write to or visit your MPs – the Christmas break is an opportunity for those who are usually too busy midweek to take 20 minutes to go and explain the above issues to their MP”, says Mrs. Williams.
“Please write to the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives and ask them to hold firm to their opposition to the Government in this Bill. Please continue to pray about these issues.
(Based on a release from the Lawyers Christian Fellowship)
