Humza Yousaf has hit again at “disinformation and inaccuracy” surrounding Scotland’s controversial hate crime act, after the Scottish Conservative chief, Douglas Ross, steered the brand new laws would end in “harmless individuals being prosecuted”.
Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, mentioned “quite a lot of disinformation” concerning the attain of the act had been “unfold on social media, by means of some inaccurate media reporting, and by political opponents”.
There was escalating concern that the brand new measures – which consolidate and develop current hate crime offences – might be used maliciously in opposition to sure teams for expressing their opinions, specifically gender-critical feminists.
The legislation, which comes into pressure on 1 April, extends the offence of stirring up hatred, which has existed in relation to racial hatred since 1986, to different protected traits: age, incapacity, faith, sexual orientation, transgender identification and variations in intercourse traits typically referred to as being intersex.
Comparable extensions in England to incorporate faith and sexual orientation have been in impact since 2006 and 2008 respectively.
This week Elon Musk, the proprietor of the social media platform X, described the brand new legislation as an “instance of why it’s so necessary to protect freedom of speech”, whereas a Downing Road spokesperson mentioned Rishi Sunak was involved a couple of “chilling” impact.
Ross, at first minister’s questions on Thursday, quoted the Scottish Police Federation’s description of the act as a “recipe for catastrophe” at a time when declining police numbers meant officers may barely take care of current crime. The federation has additionally complained that its members have acquired solely a two-hour on-line coaching package deal to take care of this advanced and delicate space.
Ross additionally quoted Rodney Dunlop, the dean of School of Advocates, who has steered the police could also be swamped by vexatious complaints.
“Folks like JK Rowling may have the police at her door every single day for making completely cheap statements,” Ross mentioned.
The writer and activist has already confronted threats from people who disagree along with her gender-critical stance to lodge complaints about her with Police Scotland from 1 April. However Rowling has countered: “In case you genuinely think about I’d delete posts calling a person a person, in order to not be prosecuted underneath this ludicrous legislation, stand by for the mom of all April Fools’ jokes”.
Yousaf insisted there was a “very excessive threshold” for prosecution and a “triple lock” on freedom of expression within the act.
He referred extensively to a newspaper column revealed on Thursday morning by Adam Tomkins, a former Tory MSP and convener of Holyrood’s justice committee, who was intently concerned with the passage of the invoice in 2021.
Tomkins insisted that “offensive speech just isn’t criminalised by this laws … simply since you really feel offended by what somebody has mentioned doesn’t make it a hate crime”.
He wrote: “Asserting that intercourse is a organic truth or that it’s not modified simply by advantage of the gender by which somebody chooses to determine just isn’t and by no means generally is a hate crime underneath this laws.”
Police Scotland have firmly rebutted stories that comedians and actors could be focused by means of enforcement, and earlier on Thursday the chief constable, Jo Farrell, instructed a gathering of the Scottish Police Authority that officers would apply the legislation “in a measured means, utilizing their discretion and their frequent sense”.
There’s additionally persevering with criticism that the legislation doesn’t embody ladies, whereas a promised new misogyny legislation to crack down on avenue harassment and organised on-line hate has but to be put earlier than Holyrood.