Scottish Catholic Observer

Church leaders and spokesmen have warned the Scottish Government against rushing through new sectarianism legislation ahead of the new football season.

The government today published proposals under the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill and hopes to have parliamentary approval within a fortnight. The bill would then be in operation for the start of the new Scottish football season on July 23.

Under the new proposals, piloted by Roseanna Cunningham (above), minister for community safety and legal affairs, offenders will face a maximum jail sentence of five years.

Peter Kearney, director of the Catholic Media Office, said the ‘truncated timescale’ reinforced the need for close scrutiny of the bill.

“Equally, however, the timetable does suggest that urgent political attention is being given to a high-profile problem,” he said. “Tackling incidents of football-related intolerance in this way will allow a wider and longer debate to take place on sectarianism and its underlying causes, without the constant distraction of football-related incidents, which statistically account for less than 15 per cent of sectarian offences in Scotland.”

After a meeting with Ms Cunningham, Rev David Arnott, moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, said ‘the speed at which it [the bill] is being rushed through means it appears to lack scrutiny and clarity.’

“Whilst we are not against the ideas in this bill, we remain unconvinced of the wisdom of this approach,” he added. “The government is rightly asking for support from across civic Scotland, but is not giving civic Scotland much time to make sure they are happy with the content.”

Similar concerns have also been raised by SNP MSP Christine Grahame, who said the time scale for passing the bill meant it may not get the proper parliamentary scrutiny.

MS Grahame called on the government to insert a ‘sunset clause’ into the legislation, which allows MSPs to revisit it at a later stage.

The new legislation will cover threatening, abusive, disorderly or offensive behaviour and will apply to fans travelling to and from matches, those watching in pubs or on outdoor screens and anyone who commits sectarian offences online.

The move follows a football season in which Celtic FC manager Neil Lennon and two high profile supporters of the club were sent viable devices in the post. The Celtic manager was also the victim of an attempted assault at a match at Heart of Midlothian’s Tynecastle stadium.

Mr Kearney previously said that any approach to tackling sectarianism in Scotland would have to recognise and target anti-Catholic and anti-Irish bigotry.