To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has reportedly spent nearly £400,000 of public money to promote Scotland’s new hate crime laws. (S6O-03334)

Presiding Officer, £390,000 was invested in the hate hurts national hate crime marketing campaign, which ran from 11 March to 31 March 2024. It included a broadcast and print campaign.

The campaign aimed to raise public awareness of hate crime by showing the impact that it has on those affected, for example a disabled person or those affected by hate crime due to their race or religion, and to encourage those who are witnesses or victims of hate crime to report it. During the development of the hate crime strategy, we heard from people who felt unable to leave their home due to their fear of being targeted by hate crime. We want to have a society where everyone feels safe. No funding was spent to promote the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

We have heard what the minister has to say, but £60,000 of public money was squandered on the ludicrous hate monster campaign, which was patronising, embarrassing and offensive; it treated the Scottish public like children. Last Wednesday, during our debate on repealing the hate crime act, Stuart McMillan argued that the new law implements a higher threshold for criminality than the long-standing stirring up of racial hatred offence. Either the Scottish National Party’s own MSPs do not understand the act, or they are right and the act makes it harder to prosecute actual hate in the form of racism. Which is it, minister?

First, the hate monster campaign had nothing to do with the Scottish Government; it was a Police Scotland decision. In relation to hate crime, we know that lots of incidents have been reported over the past three weeks. However, figures that were released yesterday show that 654 hate crime incidents have been recorded by Police Scotland, of which 51 per cent were on race.

The 2021 act has been the subject of much misrepresentation and inaccurate commentary, some of which appears to have been deliberate, which has caused confusion about what the act actually does. Can the cabinet secretary say any more about the steps that are being taken to ensure that accurate information about the act is available to the public?

I have noted the misinformation on and misrepresentation of the act, and that many commentators have ignored the people in our communities whom the act seeks to protect. Following the statement in the Parliament last week, the Scottish Government published a new fact sheet, which, alongside existing information on the act, provides further clarity and factual information on what it does and, importantly, what it does not do. We are also undertaking a series of engagements across communities in order to listen and to raise awareness of hate crime.