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ARTICLE · 19 NOVEMBER 2007

Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006

Weightmans LLP
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Employers should not let this Act slip by unnoticed, as it extends criminal liability to businesses if it can be shown that hatred has been stirred up with the consent or connivance of a director, manager, secretary or any person purporting to act in any such capacity. If proven, both the individual and the business can be found guilty of an offence.

United KingdomEmployment and HR
Stuart Jones
Stuart Jones

On 1 October 2007 the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 came into force.

The Act, which amends the Public Order Act 1986, creates a new criminal offence of stirring up hatred against a person on racial or religious grounds which carries a fine or a prison sentence of up to seven years if convicted.

Employers should not let this Act slip by unnoticed, as it extends criminal liability to businesses if it can be shown that hatred has been stirred up with the consent or connivance of a director, manager, secretary or any person purporting to act in any such capacity. If proven, both the individual and the business can be found guilty of an offence.

What do employers therefore have to be on the look out for in order to ensure they do not find themselves on the wrong side of the law? An offence is committed where the use of words, behaviour or the displaying of written material that is threatening, abusive or insulting towards a group of people has the intention or likely effect that

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