Vernon Coaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vernon Coaker on 2016-07-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, under what legislation prosecutions are brought against perpetrators of hate crime and racist abuse.
Mike Penning
Hate crimes are criminal behaviour and may be prosecuted in England and Wales using the full range of criminal offences. Sections 29 to 32 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 set out racially and religiously aggravated offences covering wounding, assault, damage, harassment (including stalking) and threatening/abusive behaviour which carry higher sentences than equivalent non-aggravated offences. Sections 18 to 23 of the Public Order Act 1986 contain offences of stirring up racial hatred and sections 29B to 29G contain offences of stirring up hatred on grounds of religion or sexual orientation. There is also an offence of racialist chanting at football matches in section 3 of the Football Offences Act 1991.
Sections 145 and 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 make it an aggravating factor for the purposes of sentencing if at the time of committing the offence, or immediately before, the offender demonstrated hostility towards the victim on the basis of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity or that the offence was motivated by hostility towards persons who had that characteristic. Under paragraph 5(2)(g) of Schedule 21 to the 2003 Act., murder motivated by hostility on the grounds of any of these characteristics attracts a life sentence with a 30 year starting point for the minimum term.
