Overview

This group met between October 2015 and September 2016 to make recommendations to help tackle hate crime in Scotland.

The 'Report of Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion' was published in September 2016.

We published our response: 'Tackling prejudice and building connected communities' in June 2017.

The group's terms of reference were to:

• take forward consideration of the nature, extent and impact of hate crime and broader hate behaviour on modern Scottish life
• assess current practice to tackle hate crime, hate behaviour, reduce prejudice and build community cohesion
• engage with stakeholders and communities on the issues of important to them while considering whether improvement could be delivered in these areas in a holistic and coordinated way
• use the evidence, information and views gathered to provide initial findings to Scottish Ministers on future priorities and actions in this area

Members

• Dr Duncan Morrow (chair), Director of Community Engagement at the University of Ulster
• Dr Rowena Arshad OBE, Head of Moray House School of Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Education for Racial Equality in Scotland (CERES)
• Pauline Kelly, Hate Crime Policy Officer, Community Safety Glasgow
• Morag McLaughlin, former senior Prosecutor for the Crown
• John Wilkes, Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee Council