Criticism for Executive over hate crimes
26 Sep 06
Campaign group wants crimes against LGBT and disabled people made aggravated offences
Equality groups have criticised the Scottish Executive for not taking a stronger stance on hate crimes.
The Scottish Parliament's Justice 2 Committee last week decided to make no amendments to hate crime legislation in the proposed Sentencing Bill. Campaigners have called for hate crimes against those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT), and against disabled people to come under the category of aggravated offence.
Equality Network said LGBT and disabled people deserved equal justice in Scotland and that giving such crimes aggravated offence status would allow them to be properly tracked through the justice system.
The campaigning group said this would show victims, perpetrators and the public that the law took such crimes seriously. The Executive's own working group on hate crimes recommended in 2004 that statutory aggravation be introduced for hate crimes, but so far only crimes involving race or religion are considered as such.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Executive said ministers were committed to tackling prejudice in all its forms, but that they believed this should be done in the context of achieving consistency in sentencing.