Police to stop recording non-crime hate incidents with new 'common sense' approach
Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are set to be scrapped under plans backed by police chiefs.
Listen to this article
Police leaders have reportedly agreed NCHIs are no longer “fit for purpose” and are set to present the plans to the Home Secretary next month.
Under the plans, a new “common sense” system is set to replace NCHIs.
It means only a minority of such incidents will be recorded and only as anti-social behaviour, the most serious category.
Non-crime hate incidents are acts where a person acts with hostility or prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic, such as, race, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or gender.
Police record these indefinitely and they can show up in background checks.
According to the Home Office, they allow forces to monitor incidents that “could escalate into more serious harm or indicate heightened community tensions”, and were introduced following recommendations by the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1999.
Read more: End of the culture war police: Met to stop non-crime hate investigations after Graham Linehan probe
The recording of these incidents was deemed by the Court of Appeal to interfere with freedom of expression and it found that this interference is only legal if it was to prevent crime or disorder, or to protect the rights of others.
The College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) will publish its plans next month before presenting them to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who is expected to back them.
Lord Herbert, the chairman of the College of Policing, told The Telegraph: “NCHIs will go as a concept. That system will be scrapped and replaced with a completely different system.
“There will be no recording of anything like it on crime databases. Instead, only the most serious category of what will be treated as anti-social behaviour will be recorded. It’s a sea change.”
They are set to be excluded from crime databases under the plans, which means they will no longer need to be declared during background checks in job applications.
In October, the Metropolitan Police it will "no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents" after dropping its probe into a series of alleged anti-transgender posts by Father Ted creator Graham Linehan.
Linehan said he will face "no further action" after being arrested at Heathrow Airport in September on suspicion of inciting violence over a string of alleged anti-transgender tweets.
The Irish TV writer had earlier vowed to "hold the police accountable" for its attempt to "silence and suppress gender-critical voices" over the probe.
Last month, Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Stephen Watson told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast urged 'caution' as he refused to confirm whether his force would scrap non-crime hate incidents.
Sir Watson told LBC: "We're not investigating anything that doesn't constitute a crime. We're very clear about this.
"We have a very rigorous approach, we will investigate all reasonable lines of inquiry in respect of all allegations of crime.
"Where we have something that is patently not criminal then we will not deploy officers to investigate it.
"But what I would say is that we do need to be cautious."
Back in April, the Tories called for recording “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs) to be banned in all but a few cases.
Kemi Badenoch said her party would put forward an amendment to the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill banning the practice, except where a senior officer thought the information would assist in the detection or prevention of a future crime.
In September, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Andy Cooke, told LBC police need to “act with common sense”, as he claimed there is ”‘no longer a need” for non-crime hate incidents to be recorded in the way they are.