My hon Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Safeguarding (Sarah Dines) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement:
I am pleased to announce the Government’s formal response to recommendation 8 of the Law Commission’s review of hate crime laws, which was published in December 2021. This review considered whether additional protected characteristics, including sex or gender, should be added to hate crime laws.
Section 72 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022 requires the Government to respond to recommendation 8 of the Law Commission’s review within a year of the Act coming into effect. This followed considerable Parliamentary interest in the issue dealt with by this recommendation, commonly known as “making misogyny a hate crime”.
In recommendation 8, the Law Commission states: “We recommend that sex or gender should not be added as a protected characteristic for the purposes of aggravated offences and enhanced sentencing.”
The Government is extremely grateful for the comprehensive and thoughtful work that the Law Commission gave to its review, as well as the quality and depth of its consultation with the many stakeholders interested in this issue.
The Government agrees with the Law Commission’s recommendation. The Law Commission report highlights concerns relating to the potential negative consequences of adding sex or gender to hate crime laws, concluding that to do so would be “more harmful than helpful, both to victims of violence against women and girls, and also to efforts to tackle hate crime more broadly.” The Government agrees with these concerns. Accordingly, the Government does not intend to bring forward legislation to add sex or gender as a protected characteristic in hate crime law.
The Government’s full response to recommendation 8 has been laid before Parliament and will also be available to view on GOV.UK. This response fulfils the statutory commitment made in the PCSC Act 2022.
The full Government response to the remaining 33 recommendations made in the Law Commission’s review of hate crime laws will be published in due course.
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