Govt urged to ditch non-crime hate incidents

Logging non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) is a misuse of police time and should be abolished, a think tank report has concluded.

An investigation by Policy Exchange estimated that 60,000 police hours per year are spent on NCHIs, approximately nine for every 100 officers.

The Government is currently reviewing operational guidance on the practice, although the report argues that compliance with the existing code is already “highly inconsistent”.

‘Chilling’

The author of the report, former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector David Spencer, said NCHIs are distracting officers “from focusing on what should be the core mission of policing to fight crime”.

chilling effect on freedom of expression in our society

He also warned that logging them is “curtailing the employment prospects of individual members of the public through inappropriate disclosures of NCHIs” and “having a broader chilling effect on freedom of expression in our society”.

Spencer, now Policy Exchange’s Head of Crime and Justice, recommended the Government “should legislate to abolish, in its entirety, the recording of Non-Crime Hate Incidents by the police”.

Support

Endorsing the report, Lord Hogan-Howe – Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police between 2011 and 2017 – said Parliament must now decide whether the police should continue to investigate NCHIs and urged Ministers to consider the report’s findings.

Echoing the Policy Exchange recommendation to abolish NCHIs, former Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption said “I think, as many people do, that the police have no business to be recording things that are not crimes.

“This particular species of activity is so badly defined that it eventually becomes a vehicle for people to visit grudges or for fanatics to try to suppress opposing views. I find that rather distasteful.”

He added: “to create artificial records simply in order to make it easier for the police to surveil isn’t justified. There are more important principles at stake than making life easy for the police.”

Trivial

According to freedom of information responses, police forces in Britain recorded 13,200 NCHIs in the year to June 2024.

Lincolnshire police, one among 45 of the UK’s 48 forces to submit data to The Times newspaper, logged an NCHI against a local journalist when he was reported for referring to the deaf community as “deaf and dumb” in a Scootering magazine article.

It also found that Warwickshire Police had logged an NCHI against a ‘suspect’ after refusing to shake someone’s hand was “perceived to be hate related due to gender identity”.

In his report, Spencer noted: “The right of individuals to express their opinions – including opinions that may be, or may be considered by some to be, offensive, trivial, satirical or unsophisticated – is protected by law.”

No change

Widespread concerns over NCHIs do not look set to persuade the Government to change its approach.

In August, the Home Office announced that Yvette Cooper would increase the burden on police officers to keep records of ‘hate incidents’ which are not criminal offences.

The move reversed the previous Government’s policy, where former Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the police not to interfere with a person’s freedom of expression “simply because someone is offended”.

The latest concerns prompted the Home Office to defend its stance, with a source telling The Daily Telegraph: “It is part of our manifesto commitment”.