Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, that is for consideration on another day. I certainly do not wish to dwell on it this evening, particularly as I have many points to respond to and am fast running out of the time that I should occupy. I was particularly interested in the contribution from the Opposition Benches by the noble Baroness, Lady Flather. She made the important point that the Government should tackle Muslim disadvantage. I could not disagree with that. One has to look at the legislation in context and as part of a developing and evolving policy. If we took part of the noble Baroness’ comments at face value, we would not be acting at all on an agenda that dealt with social cohesion and inequality or tackled the disadvantages and alienation that exists in many Muslim communities.