Coroners and Justice Bill

I support the proposal of the noble Lord, Lord Waddington. I shall be very brief in view of the hour, but I shall make three points. First, we are not discussing the basic protection that the law rightly provides for our citizens against harassment, danger or stirring up hatred on grounds of race, religion or sexual preference. That is right and is unchanged. We are discussing the Government’s proposal to remove one article—the free speech clause—from the Public Order Act, which states that certain actions are not to be taken as threatening or intended to stir up hatred. I am surprised to find this proposal in this Bill. Parliament decided very recently, after a full discussion in this House and with the agreement of the House of Commons to put this article in the law. The Government can always propose to amend legislation, but in my view very strong reasons are needed to propose the selective change of legislation of such recent date. I do not see those reasons; on the contrary, it is clear that some of our citizens, particularly those who are Christians and in Christian groups, believe that the article offers them some protection against harassment. The public, the police and the courts are entitled to look for some stability in legislation. Over the past week, the Minister has frequently criticised amendments as inappropriate to the Bill or to its twin brother, the Policing and Crime Bill. That argument goes both ways; the Clause 61 proposal is simply slipped in among clauses on the coroner’s services and issues such as assisted suicide, the law of murder, the defence of provocation, infanticide, pornography, prostitution, conspiracy and terrorist offences. There it is, all by itself. We do not deal with finance in this House, so I know nothing about stealth taxes, but this looks a little like stealth legislation. Even with no account taken of Brussels, we are none the less bombarded with home-baked legislation—some of it half-baked, of course—that is difficult enough to understand. It really is surprising that in these circumstances the Government have decided to seek to remove this one article on free speech. Clause 61 is not necessary and should be dropped. Yesterday, we discussed the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. The Government proposed Clause 10, which would have restricted free speech in the other House; the other House voted against it and struck it out. This seems to be the week of the Government against free speech and, in those circumstances, we should maintain the free speech provision in the law. I support the proposal of the noble Lord, Lord Waddington.