Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I say to the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, that unfortunately I very much agree with the statements made by other noble Lords. I agree with what was said by the noble Lord, Lord Lester, my noble friend Lord Plant, the right reverend Prelate and, indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway—this is not the right amendment. I reassure the noble Lord that I fully appreciate the concern that has caused him to proceed with tabling the amendment, but I do not believe that it is necessary to amend the Bill in the way that he suggests—not least because of the amendments that were made earlier. As we have said previously, the Bill is about stirring up hatred. It is difficult to see how simply reading from a sacred text would ever, by itself, be considered an action that would stir up hatred. The only circumstances that I can envisage where the reading out of a sacred text could possibly fall within the scope of an offence would be if such a reading were accompanied by actions or words which are already adequately covered by the freedom of expression exemption currently in the Bill at paragraph 29J. The noble Lord, Lord Lester, the architect of these provisions, is therefore quite right in saying that it would be unnecessary. That is because it exempts matters such as criticism and expressions of antipathy towards a particular religious belief. When we reach the Motion that the Bill do now pass, I will report to the House, as I undertook to do on Report, the outcome of our strenuous deliberations, which have engaged all Benches—the Bishops’ Bench, Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition, the Liberal Democrats and ourselves—to try to come to an accommodation. It is clear that the noble Lord, Lord Hylton, is seeking to underline the consensus which we all arrived at—that we need to do two things. We need to protect people from the aberrant and quite disastrous effects of religious hatred but, by the same terms, not put any improper restriction on our freedom of speech and of expression. When we come to the next stage, I will seek to outline the Government’s response to those issues.