Ministers move to protect women under hate crime laws

Ministers have published draft legislation to create extra protections for women and girls under hate crime laws – over four years after voting down an effort to do so.

The new regulations will add ‘sex’ as a characteristic to the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which if approved will make it an offence to stir up hatred against a person because of their biological sex.

The move comes more than four years after the passing of the act, when parliamentarians voted to exclude ‘sex’ from the list of characteristics – the only protected characteristic under the Equality Act to not be covered.

At the time, the Scottish Government commissioned Baroness Helena Kennedy to conduct a review into how best to tackle misogyny, arguing it may require a different approach.

Baroness Kennedy concluded that a standalone offence for misogyny would be appropriate, a position ministers later agreed with.

However, earlier this year it was confirmed the government would no longer be moving forward with its Misogyny Bill. It was felt there was “insufficient time” for the bill to be introduced and scrutinised by parliament before the election next May, particularly following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of ‘sex’.

Justice secretary Angela Constance said: “Adding the characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime Act will ensure that women and girls have the same protections as victims who are targeted because of a specific characteristic, such as age, religion or disability.

“Men and boys will also be protected, however, we know that women and girls suffer significantly more from threats, abuse and harassment based on their sex, so they are likely to benefit most from these new legal protections.

“This will add to a range of general laws that can be used to prosecute aspects of misogynistic harassment and abuse.”

The consultation on the draft regulations will run until 10 October, with final regulations set to be laid and approved before dissolution towards the end of March.