Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 19 November (HL11282), whether the police and Crown Prosecution Service definition of hate crime includes hate speech; and if so, what is the basis in statute for that offence.

The term ‘hate speech’ does not have any legal meaning. For any example of hate speech to be treated as a hate crime it would need to meet the police and Crown Prosecution Service definition of a hate crime.