Serious objections have been raised by both the Scottish Police Federation and the Catholic Church in Scotland to the proposal to create a new criminal offence of “stirring up hatred” against people belonging to one of the protected groups covered by the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, which include race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. The police fear that the bill would make them the regulators of freedom of speech, as they would have to decide which expressions of opinion are allowed and which are not.

The Catholic bishops’ objection is that the bill could conceivably make even the possession of a Bible a criminal offence, because of passages such as Leviticus 20:13: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” They also fear the proposed law could be used to suppress debate about transgender issues.