on thursday last week, with my liaison office hat on, i attended a briefing at the home office on the implementation of the new legislation on racial and religious hatred. this was the legislation on which the government suffered a one vote defeat in january (tony blair had gone home). this meant that substantial amendments  proposed by the Lords safeguarding free speech were included in the act.

on the whole these home office meetings have been valuable, a chance for 'stakeholders' to meet  the people who actually write the legislation. this was a slightly strange meeting though: the civil servants in the meeting seemed disappointed and a little petulant at having the legislation so gutted. they seemed to be in no hurry to implement the act or to issue guidelines. 

 those of us concerned about threats to free speech in this legislation can relax; paragraph 29 J on 'Protection of Freedom of Expression' makes it clear that:

Nothing in this Part shall be read or given effect in a way which prohibits or restricts discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions or the beliefs or practices of their adherents, or of any other belief system or the beliefs or practices of its adherents, or proselytising or urging adherents of a different religion or belief system to cease practising their religion or belief system.

The BBC report summed the amendments up as meaning:

The final version of the laws contains specific freedom of speech safeguards aimed at ensuring people can only be found guilty if they intend to stir up hatred. And they would ban only "threatening" words and behaviour, not things which were merely critical, abusive or insulting.

what this means in practice will be tested in the courts when prosecutions are brought. at one point in thursday's  discussion a civil servant present, in an inadvertent moment, said he wasn't sure there would ever be a prosecution under legislation with a safeguard like this.

the law will not be implemented till preparations are in place, guidelines issued to police and basic training in place, for example, probably a matter of months. 

if you want to know more, here are some useful links.

the bbc report:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3873323.stm

the act

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/20060001.htm

wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_and_Religious_Hatred_Bill