Peers vote to go beyond Govt’s pledge to end non-crime hate incidents

The House of Lords has voted to strengthen measures against non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs).

After a Government amendment removing the statutory basis for non-crime hate incidents passed without a vote earlier this week, Peers backed Lord Young of Acton’s requirement that NCHIs “must not be recognised as a category of incident by any police authority in the United Kingdom”, and any guidance “in relation to incident recording must have due regard to the right to freedom of expression”.

The amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill would also ensure the deletion of any historic incidents that do not meet the recording threshold; such incidents can appear on enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks when applying for a job.

‘Beneficial for everyone’

Explaining the impact of this amendment, Lord Young said it would “end the investigation and recording of non-crime hate incidents and ensure that any future incident recording guidance has due regard to the right to freedom of expression”.

He emphasised that, no matter one’s political stance, it is in “all our interests” to “place a statutory limit on what the police can investigate and record as non-crimes”.

But the Government opposed the amendment, with Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint claiming it would “tie officers’ hands”. Peers backed the change by 227 votes to 221.

NCHIs have been logged when an incident, alleged or not, has been perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards another on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, sex or transgender identity.

Reforms

Earlier this week, Lord Hanson told the upper chamber: “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”.

In December, the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) concluded that recording “information about non-crime incidents on a crime system is not the right solution”.