Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Peyton, has set me a difficult challenge. I am to avoid piety and agreement in an egregious manner with members on the opposite Bench and still answer his questions. I hope to be able to do that in a way which satisfies him. The Deputy Chief Whip tells me that it would be almost a physical impossibility for a Home Office Minister, of whatever complexion, not to hanker after the old Bill. But I can tell your Lordships that it is a temptation which I find very easy to resist, because I am a total realist and pragmatist about where we now find ourselves. The most important thing now is to try to chart a way through this issue and bring consensus. I hope that I outlined clearly in my comments earlier today that we have accepted the construct and framework set out by the view expressed by the Committee when we dealt comprehensively with those matters. We are looking with a great deal of purposeful energy at how we can express better the freedom of expression criterion so that it does not do violence to our ability to prosecute these offences. It should honour the real concern which was expressed all around the House—just as volubly, indeed, from our own Benches—that freedom of expression has to be preserved and promoted in a way with which others will feel content. There are more difficulties, and I have set out what they are. My hope and aspiration is that we will be able to mediate a way through them to arrive at consensus. That is certainly what we—each of us, as I understood it—have set our minds to achieving. So I hope that in that sense we shall be able to satisfy noble Lords. The noble Lords, Lord Lester and Lord Hunt, have already referred to the reasons why we believe that a definition would be unhelpful in this regard, and unnecessary. I am sure, as the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, made clear, that the noble Lord, Lord Peyton, accepts that his definition does not cover all the religions that are recognised as the major religions—and Buddhism has been mentioned among others. I agree with what was said about the European Convention on Human Rights. The definition advocated in this amendment is not as comprehensive or rigorous as the approach to the meaning of religion adopted by the courts in relation to the convention. That approach requires a religion that contains a coherent set of beliefs. All those are things with which I believe that we probably agree—and I know that the noble Lord’s amendment is a very piercing probing amendment to ensure that I do not slip off the straight and narrow. I assure him that I know the direction of travel in which we shall have to go to settle this matter—if it can be settled—in a way that is honourable, fair and delivers what we would all wish to see.