Coroners and Justice Bill

As always, the noble Lord has made some interesting distinctions, but in my judgment he has not dealt with the powerful point made by the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, about the chilling effect of the removal of the section on the protection of freedom of speech, nor the right reverend Prelate’s point about the symbolic effect of removing the section. I, too, am rather puzzled by the response of the Government; it is as if there were some urgency to remove the section. I wonder where the pressure is coming from for Clause 61 to repeal the free-speech protection. I detect no sense of burning public anger in favour of this. Certainly, many are concerned about the effect on freedom of speech, many of whom admire the Government’s record on freedom of speech in other spheres. Gay rights supporters are divided. Matthew Parris has already been cited by the noble Lord, Lord Waddington. The only major pressure appears to come from Stonewall. That organisation has done some significant work to enhance the dignity of gay people, but surely the Government are not bound to accept its entire agenda. In fact, there must be little of that agenda left now. It is but a lobby, and the Government should have a wider perspective. In passing, I consider the malign effects of accepting Stonewall’s view on Christian adoption agencies. It was predictable, and it was predicted, that it would have those malign effects on some of the most caring adoption agencies in the country. The effect of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 has been that most of the 14 agencies, mostly Roman Catholic, have been forced either to withdraw from adoption services entirely or to abandon their religious ethos to continue. The result has been a victory for political correctness and defeat for vulnerable children and common sense. The Waddington amendment, in my judgment, is moderately drafted, avoids doubt and in no way raises the threshold. The real problem of the repeal of this protection is that it will stifle honest expression of opinion—the so-called "chilling effect". Official guidance will not solve the problem; it does not have the force of law. The protection should be in the Bill. Guidance can be modified or withdrawn, and the current guidance is extremely weak. The noble Lord, Lord Waddington, has already cited paragraph 3.10 of the CPS guidance on prosecution, dated July 2007. Some will say that there is no real problem; after all, there is a longstop in the fiat of the Attorney-General, who must sanction any prosecution. It is said that that is a powerful protection. The certainty, though, is that it will take time for any investigation to reach the Attorney-General, from the complaint to the police investigation to consideration by the Crown Prosecution Service. In the mean time—there are many examples of this—decent, law-abiding citizens will be in fear and dread as a result of that perhaps quite protracted investigation. There is no doubt, from experience, that oversensitive zealots will make complaints about, at the very least, provocation. In April this year, for example, a gentleman, Mr Kwabena Peat, was suspended from his senior teaching job for complaining that the staff INSET day was used to promote homosexual lifestyles. In 2006 a Member of the Scottish Parliament complained after a sermon by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, who had stood in favour of the institution of marriage and against civil partnerships. In a more recent example, on Monday 6 July the Independent reported that since the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Rochester made his statement, with which some may or may not agree, he has been accused of pandering to hate and homophobia after calling on homosexuals to repent: ""Sharon Ferguson, of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, condemned Dr Nazir-Ali for making comments that she said would encourage hatred"." That is the problem: she has made the allegation that what he said would encourage hatred. No doubt, if she were to pass that to a sympathetic police officer, it would shortly be investigated. Ultimately, of course, it would not proceed because either the CPS or the Attorney-General would stop it. I am confident that the right reverend Prelate is sufficiently robust to withstand the anxiety during any possible period of investigation; I am less confident about ordinary law-abiding citizens who will have to suffer the trauma of that period of investigation. In my judgment, the clause provides clear and necessary guidance. It follows the precedent of the religious hatred law, and it should be retained if, as the noble Baroness has said, we value and give proper weight to free speech.