Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I have considerable sympathy with the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Peyton of Yeovil, but I am going to be very careful in what I say for this simple reason: I do not want to say anything which is likely to make it more difficult to reach an agreement with the Government along the lines that were suggested earlier today. Therefore I will make only a couple of points. Firstly, one should not seek to define religion by Act of Parliament. The Human Rights Act 1998 did not do so; neither does the European Convention on Human Rights. If this definition were to be regarded as appropriate to theistic religions, it would not be regarded as appropriate to, for example, Buddhism. As I understand it, that is not a theistic religion. That may be a boring and technical reason, perhaps an important one, but it is one which anyone who has followed the Charities Bill will understand. The Government eventually changed the whole approach on the meaning of religion in the Charities Bill to make clear that it included non-theistic religions, especially Buddhism. That is beside the point, because the main point which the noble Lord makes is that one should only criminalise freedom of expression where, in his words, there is,"““justifiable and immediate fear of violence.””" That was the approach of Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Justice Brandeis and of Justice Cardozo in all the great American free speech cases. On one reading, it is also the approach under the European Convention on Human Rights. I have great sympathy for that point, and for limiting the scope of what we have to a justifiable and immediate fear of violence, or something resembling it. However, I believe that the amendments passed by your Lordships’ House in Committee strike a fair balance between freedom of expression, freedom of religion, the right to equal treatment without discrimination, a fair criminal process and the principle of legal certainty and proportionality, and so on. I hope that the Minister will respond fully to the important speech made this evening by the noble Lord, Lord Peyton. However, speaking for myself, were the House to divide and accept the amendment, it would make it that much more difficult to secure overall agreement within the principles—and the three essential safeguards—that your Lordships’ House has already approved.