Moved by
Baroness Newlove
114F: After Clause 55, insert the following new Clause—
“Offences motivated by hostility towards the sex or gender of the victim
(1) In this section—
“relevant crime” means a reported crime in which—
(a) the victim or any other person perceived the alleged offender, at the time of or immediately before or after the offence, to demonstrate hostility or prejudice based on sex, or
(b) the victim or any other person perceived the crime to be motivated (wholly or partly) by hostility or prejudice towards persons who are of a particular sex;
“sex” has the same meaning as in section 11 of the Equality Act 2010 (sex).
(2) The Secretary of State must make regulations requiring the chief officer of police of any police force to provide information relating to—
(a) the number of relevant crimes reported to the police force, and
(b) the number of those crimes which, in the opinion of the chief officer of police, would be subject to subsection (4).
(3) A court considering the seriousness of an offence arising from a relevant crime not included in subsection (4) must treat the fact that the offence is aggravated by hostility or prejudice towards sex or gender as an aggravating factor when determining a sentence.
(4) Subsection (3) does not apply to—
(a) an offence under the law of England and Wales which is for the time being specified in Schedule 3 to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, other than the offence specified in paragraph 14 of that Schedule (fraudulent evasion of excise duty),
(b) an offence under the law of England and Wales which is for the time being specified in Part 6 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, or
(c) an offence under the law of England and Wales which is defined in section 1 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 as “domestic abuse”.”
Member’s explanatory statement
This amendment would require police forces to record data on crimes motivated by hostility towards the victim’s sex or gender, as well as requiring courts to take into account this hostility as an aggravating factor when deciding the seriousness of cases which are not sexual or domestic offences.