Part 2: Prevention, investigation and prosecution of crime Chapter 4: Other provisions Section 72: Response to Law Commission report on hate crime laws
Subsection (1) provides that within 12 months of the passing of the Act, the Secretary of State must :
prepare and publish a Government response to Recommendation 8 of the Law Commission’s report on hate crime, which concerned adding sex or gender as a protected characteristic for the purposes of aggravated offences and enhanced sentencing in hate crime laws; and
lay the Government’s response before Parliament.
	Subsection (2) clarifies that "the Law Commission report on hate crime" means the Law Commission report "Hate Crime Laws" that was published on 7 December 2021. Recommendation 8 of the report stated that: "We recommend that sex or gender should not be added as a protected characteristic for the purposes of aggravated offences and enhanced sentencing".