The Catholic Church in Scotland has issued a detailed response to the Scottish Government’s review of hate crime legislation, arguing that the review offers an opportunity to “rationalise and simplify” legislation which has been criticised as ineffective and divisive. The Director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office at Holyrood, Anthony Horan has said that the process of review “is an opportunity, ultimately, to ensure that the legislation is just and that every group is protected”.
The Church’s response emphasises a long history of anti-Catholic sectarianism in Scotland, arguing that it is quantitatively and qualitatively different from other types of religious hate crime in the country. Instances of anti-Catholic hate crime greatly outnumber all other types of religious hate crime combined.
The report comes out on the eve of celebrations marking the centenary of state-supported Catholic education in Scotland, a measure that provided a new focus for sectarianism in the early decades of the 20th century. While insisting on this historical perspective, Mr Horan said that it was important that any future legislation “preserves judicial discretion recognising that Scotland has a criminal justice system populated by highly trained prosecutors and judges”, who are in the best position to make decisions about individual cases “and should be free to do so in the absence of their decision being ‘politicised’ by legislation which creates a perceived ‘scandal’ where none exists”.
The review of hate crime follows a period of controversy surrounding the implementation of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012, which has been criticised for creating a new therapeutic culture of victimhood, while failing to address the root historical causes of sectarianism in Scotland.
(Pic: Armed police on patrol outside the Scottish Parliament building in Holyrood, Edinburgh. Credit: PA)
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