This petition was submitted during the 2019-2024 parliament
Rejected petition Comprehensive review of deterrent sentences across current racism legislation
Review and update current legislation (with the help of external experts, as necessary) such that deterrent sentences will be imposed on acts of racism.
Current statutory guidelines are inadequate and non-punitive, resulting in the wanton display of racism out in the open (e.g. post Euro 2020)
More details
Racism is institutionally embedded across the UK; current legislation is neither harsh nor punitive enough to deter overt or covert forms of racism.
Current burden of proof also tends to be on the victims and not the perpetrators.
There isn't sufficient oversight over the government bodies to prosecute cases, when these crimes actually make it past the investigations stage.
A sea-change is required, and this needs to be driven from the top and via enforceable / deterrent legislation.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
We can't publish petitions when the request is something that's already happening or something that has been announced since you started your petition.
We think your petition is covered by Government or Parliament action already. If you'd like something else, you could start a new petition clearly explaining what it is.
The Law Commission are already in the middle of conducting a review, which you can view the progress of here: https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/hate-crime/
You may also like to sign the following petition which we have open which calls for increased penalties for hate crimes:
Increase penalties for racist and religious hate crimes
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/592025
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.