Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021- SSI to add sex as a characteristic: business and regulatory impact assessment

Section 5: Next steps and implementation

Recommendations/ preferred options

It is recommended that we proceed to use the power at section 12 of the 2021 Act to add the characteristic of sex to the 2021 Act. The costs associated with this will fall mainly on justice system agencies as a result of a possible increase in the number of cases reported to COPFS for consideration of prosecution by Police Scotland, and the possibility that cases with a statutory aggravation by prejudice will be more likely to be prosecuted rather than being diverted from prosecution.

The costs are considered proportionate to the aim of ensuring that crimes committed against people, mainly women and girls, who are motivated to commit the crime by prejudice relating to the victim’s sex, are treated in the same way crimes motivated by prejudice relating to e.g. religion, disability or sexual orientation.

Implementation considerations/ plan

If passed by Parliament, the SSI will come into effect on 5 April 2027.

Post implementation review

The Scottish Government will monitor the effectiveness of the 2021 Act on an ongoing basis, taking account of police recorded crime and criminal proceedings statistics and the more detailed reports required to be published by the Scottish Ministers under sections 14 and 15 of the 2021 Act.

If Parliament votes to approve the SSI to add the characteristic of sex to the 2021 Act, the SSI will amend the statutory reporting requirements so as to ensure that monitoring will include consideration of the impact of this.