Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)

On the first point that the noble Baroness mentioned, the question of hate marches, as I said in my earlier contribution, the Government have passed the Crime and Policing Bill, which is now heading for Royal Assent. It includes additional powers for the police to both ban and reroute marches. It is for the police to take those actions, not politicians. Where those actions lead to persistent hate marches, the police now have additional powers under what will be the Crime and Policing Act to take action on that. As I said in response to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Grade, I will look at the issue of banning people from activities because of their religion. As the time for this Statement has now finished, I leave the House by saying that the Government strongly condemn antisemitism and will take whatever action they can to root it out and to support the Jewish community. I hope that we can work towards a cohesive society where people’s religion, colour or background does not cause violence against them or intimidation directed towards their behaviour or the way in which they choose to live their life. Everybody is individual and should be allowed to live their life to their full potential.