Consultation responses support new hate crime regulations.
Women and girls will have greater protection against hate crimes
under legislation laid in the Scottish Parliament by Ministers
today.
The regulations, if agreed by MSPs, will designate ‘sex' as a
protected characteristic under the Hate Crime and Public Order
(Scotland) Act 2021. There are protections in the Act for
individuals' rights in respect to freedom of expression for the
new stirring up hatred offences. Hate crime is behaviour that is
both criminal and rooted in prejudice and can be verbal,
physical, online or face-to-face.
This will make it a specific criminal offence to stir up hatred
against women and girls, as well as men and boys, because of
their sex. The regulations will also allow courts to treat crimes
motivated by hatred of someone's sex as aggravated offences,
which are considered more serious - including when passing
sentence following conviction.
A consultation was held on the draft regulations, with 309 out of
365 responses supporting adding the characteristic of sex to both
the stirring up of hatred offence and the aggravation. The final
regulations now laid for MSPs' scrutiny are largely unchanged
from the draft.
The change will mean that women and girls have the same legal
safeguards available under the Act to groups targeted by hate
crime because of their age, disability, religion, sexual
orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex
characteristics.
Justice Secretary said:
“These regulations will significantly strengthen legal
protections for women and girls from offences motivated by
prejudice and hatred because of their sex and they will ensure
that Scotland's justice system can respond appropriately.
“The changes will mean women and girls have the same protections
as victims who are targeted because of a specific characteristic,
such as age, religion or disability. Men and boys will also be
protected, however, we know that women and girls suffer
significantly more from threats, abuse and harassment based on
their sex, so they are likely to benefit most from those new
protections.
“The vast majority of responses received during the consultation
on these proposals supported adding the characteristic of sex to
both the stirring up of hatred offence and the aggravation.
“The regulations will come into force on 5 April 2027, giving
Police Scotland the necessary time to update training and
guidance and ensuring they are operationally ready for the
change.”
Background
As required by law, the draft Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI)
to enact the change was laid in Parliament for views to be
offered. A public consultation on the draft SSI ran from 28
August and 17 October 2025 and the responses helped to inform
consideration of the final SSI The Hate Crime and Public Order
(Scotland) Act 2021 (Characteristic of Sex) (Amendment and
Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026 .
Consultation responses and
analysis
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act was implemented on
1 April 2024. It introduced new offences for threatening and/or
abusive behaviour which is intended to stir up hatred against a
group of people who possess, or appear to possess,
characteristics including age, disability, religion, sexual
orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex
characteristics. These new offences have a higher threshold for a
crime to be committed than the long-standing offence of stirring
up racial hatred, which has been in place since 1986. The
regulations define sex as “biological sex”.
In hate crime law, an offence can be aggravated based on what the
offender believes about the victim's identity, even if that
belief is wrong. This already applies to existing protections,
such as homophobic or Islamophobic abuse directed at someone who
does not belong to that group. The same principle would apply
where abuse is based on perceived sex, regardless of the victim's
actual sex.
Reporting hate crime - Police
Scotland
