Coroners and Justice Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord. As my young daughter noticed all those years ago, the police are always likely to be present in those circumstances and to be drawn willy-nilly into the arguments. I brought in that reminiscence to ask where the police stand in this. Prior to your Lordships' House approving the Waddington amendment a year ago, the police and the prosecuting authorities were, frankly, between a rock and a hard place. There was never any question then, nor is there now or will be in the future, that behaviour would be tolerated if it was offensive, aggressive, threatening or demeaning, and that the police would, should and will act accordingly to uphold the law. However, prior to the Waddington amendment, the police regularly received complaints from homosexual groups that exception was taken to remarks that homosexuality was deplored on religious grounds. The police were forced to act. They operated, as we have already heard alluded to, against a background of the Home Office’s guidance notes on how to handle hate crime under the Public Order Act 1986, to which the issue of sexual orientation was added by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. The so-called guidance notes in fact required rigid adherence. Any complaint of hate crime, by whomsoever made, even a bystander, had to be recorded as such and fully investigated. No exercise of discretion was countenanced. Accordingly, the police, and later the CPS, when faced with a complaint concerning remarks about sexual orientation, would follow the Home Office’s guidance notes, go through the whole procedure of interview, sometimes following arrest—fingerprinting, taking DNA samples, police bail, sometimes charge—even though pretty well everyone in the official process knew that there was little or no chance of a prosecution, much less a conviction, following. What a waste of time, what a waste of money and resources, and what a terrible burden to place on the person being arrested or interviewed, often waiting months for an outcome that was obvious to everyone except them. In many cases, the tactics were obvious: a complaint from a pressure group, police pressured into action with an implied threat of a complaint against them for neglect if a full investigation was not carried out and the inevitable chilling effect, about which we have heard already, on others who might be tempted to protest similarly in the future. In short, it was a very successful tactic to limit freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Perhaps the most important question of all is what has happened since the Waddington amendment a year ago. Despite intensive research, I cannot trace a single instance of police intervention during that time in these circumstances. So what is the official response from the Association of Chief Police Officers? Well, there is no official response, a stance that I applaud because noble Lords will remember, as I do, ACPO a few years ago having its fingers burned when it intervened publicly in two separate debates concerning proposed legislation. Since then it has sensibly kept its head below the legislative parapet. However, my recent discussions privately with senior ACPO figures, including those most closely involved with issues of this nature, reveal two facts critical to our debate today: first, not only has ACPO not declared an official stance but it has not given an unofficial view in any quarter; secondly, it would much prefer to see the defeat of Clause 61 and the continuation of the Waddington amendment. The reasons given to me for this are simple and perhaps obvious. With the Waddington amendment in place, the police are released from the virtual straitjacket imposed on them previously; they can exercise common sense and good judgment on the day; and they can police with the light touch which is so often sought and required by society. I have said enough perhaps. This clause denies any exercise of common sense, balance or discretion; it seeks to prevent reasonable expression; it is legally and jurisprudentially stifling; and it will serve no purpose but to return us to the wholly unsatisfactory state of affairs that existed a little over 12 months ago.