Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I have listened to the debate with considerable interest, and I shall not argue that a case cannot be made for the abolition of the current blasphemy law. I shall not even argue that it cannot be done in this Bill—it may be within the scope of the Long Title. Earlier this afternoon we had a debate about timing, and when it was appropriate for amendments to be introduced and considered by the House. We are on Report and a pretty fundamental amendment has been tabled. It covers not only the basic issue of blasphemy but in the proposed new subsections (b) and (c), as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Oxford, said, it deals with other matters, such as the disturbance of religious services. We need to consider carefully appropriate legislation to deal with such offences, not only in the Christian religion but in others, too. I sense that the noble Lord, Lord Lester, is conscious of the strength of the arguments because I, too, noticed the manner in which he concluded his remarks. He spoke about the Bishops coming forward at some point and giving a green light to legislation. He then said that it could not be this afternoon or at this stage in the Bill’s proceedings. It has been an interesting debate. It is perfectly sensible for this matter to be raised, and for a signal to be given that we should consider it in a more appropriate way in the future. However, it would be totally wrong to move forward with the clause as it stands at this stage when there will be no proper opportunity to consider the wider implications or whether any substitutes are needed to avoid disturbance of religious services. For those reasons, I could not support the amendment.