Law Commission of England Consultation on Reform of Hate Laws

The English Law Commission is launching a consultation process on whether hate crime provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 should be extended to cover disability, sexual orientation or gender identity:

"In this consultation, we analyse the case for reforming the existing offences to bring greater coherence and protection for all five groups.  We ask:

• Do existing criminal offences provide adequate protection against the types of wrongdoing occurring against members of the protected groups?
• Do the Courts’ existing sentencing powers provide a sufficient response in all cases?
• Would extending the offences create uncertainty or have other unintended consequences?"

 The Commissions has released:

• a consultation paper
• material on hate crimes and freedom of expression at the European Court of Human Rights
• a history of hate crime legislation in British law
• a provisional assessment of the impact of the Commission's proposals for reform