Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012

8 Section 6: interpretation

(1) Subsections (2) to (5) define expressions used in section 6.

(2) “Communicates” means communicates by any means (other than by means of unrecorded speech); and related expressions are to be construed accordingly.

(3) “Material” means anything that is capable of being read, looked at, watched or listened to, either directly or after conversion from data stored in another form.

(4) “Hatred on religious grounds” means hatred against—

(a) a group of persons based on their membership (or presumed membership) of—

(i) a religious group (within the meaning given by section 74(7) of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003 (asp 7)),

(ii) a social or cultural group with a perceived religious affiliation, or

(b) an individual based on the individual’s membership (or presumed membership) of a group mentioned in either of sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) of paragraph (a).

(5) “Seriously violent act” means an act that would cause serious injury to, or the death of, a person.

(6) In subsection (4)—

(a) “membership”, in relation to a group, includes association with members of that group, and

(b) “presumed” means presumed by the person making the communication.