I am grateful to the Minister. He is being very generous. The difficulty that many of us have had throughout the passage of the Bill is that whatever sane and sensible comments may be made from the Dispatch Box by a Minister, and whatever sane and sensible decision may be taken by the Attorney-General in bringing a prosecution or by a court in interpreting the facts before a trial, there will be complaints, which will be investigated by the police. The Minister says that he will give guidance to the police, and I am sure he will. The problem is that that may well be the sort of guidance that has allowed over 35,000 people to be stopped and searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, with only 455 arrests. Such guidance will give no comfort to people who may be affected by the Bill.
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill
Proceeding contribution from
David Heath
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 31 January 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Racial and Religious Hatred Bill 2005-06.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
442 c197 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2024-04-21 10:05:40 +0100
URI
http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_296116
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_296116
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_296116