A Government amendment removing the statutory basis for non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) has passed without a vote in the House of Lords.
Home Office Minister Lord Hanson of Flint told Peers examining the Crime and Policing Bill that NCHIs are not “fit for purpose” and they are set to be “replaced with a clearer, more proportionate model”.
Following a recent review, the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPPC) concluded that recording “information about non-crime incidents on a crime system is not the right solution”.
Common-sense approach
Lord Flint said: “Police officers must be able to focus on catching criminals, cutting crime and ensuring public safety, and the present statutory code has not provided the clarity needed to support that focus. It must therefore be revoked.”
He explained that a “more appropriate framework” is to be set out which will only “relate to core policing purposes” and that these “reforms will be supported by robust guidance and training so that the incidents are handled appropriately”.
Chair of the College of Policing, Lord Herbert of South Downs, confirmed that if the proposals are approved by senior officers, then “non-crime hate incidents will no longer be recorded. They will go”.
He emphasised that “this will not be a mere rebranding exercise. The threshold of an incident will be significantly increased. Common-sense professional judgment will guide decisions and only where there is a genuine risk of harm and a clear policing purpose will incidents continue to be recorded.”
‘Not a policing matter’
The founder and General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, commented: “I have long-standing concerns that the investigation and recording of non-crime hate incidents has been a huge waste of police time and had a chilling effect on free speech.”
Examples of NCHIs, he said, have included “a man accused of whistling the theme tune to ‘Bob the Builder’ whenever he saw his neighbour, a woman who said on social media she thought her cat was a Methodist, and two schoolgirls who told another girl in the school playground that she smelled like fish.”
He expressed the hope that if, under the new proposals, “someone calls a control room to complain about a supposedly offensive remark they have seen on Twitter or overheard across the garden fence, the call handler can say, ‘I’m sorry, but that’s not a policing matter’.”
Progress
The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert welcomed the Government amendment: “This is a win for The Christian Institute and its supporters. We have been drawing attention to the problems with NCHIs for many years.
“People want the police to be concentrating on real crime, not wasting time recording spurious politically-motivated allegations which don’t actually benefit policing or the public.
“The Government must now ensure that whatever replaces non-crime hate incidents has a high threshold and a free speech focus. We will have to study the proposals carefully and keep an eye on implementation. But we can be thankful for this concession from the Government.”
Whistling ‘Bob the Builder’ logged by police as ‘hate incident’