The College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council have written to the Policing Minister urging that all police forces in England and Wales stop recording so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’.

Non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are those that involve an act by a person which is perceived by another to be motivated wholly or partly by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a protected characteristic that is covered by hate crime laws in England and Wales.

Importantly, NCHIs are not crimes. However, information about them (including the personal data of their subject) are recorded by the police if – as the Non-Crime Hate Incidents: Code of Practice on the Recording and Retention of Personal Data puts it – it is deemed that the incident “presents a real risk of significant harm to individuals or groups with a particular characteristic(s) and/or a real risk that a future criminal offence may be committed against individuals or groups with a particular characteristic(s)”.

NCHIs and their recording have attracted considerable controversy in recent years, as critics argue that they constitute an unnecessary imposition on the police who are required to investigate trivial complaints, not to mention the infringement on freedom of expression and the practical consequences of them being recorded (including that they can appear on enhanced DBS checks).

In 2021, guidance on NCHIs from the College of Policing was held by the Court of Appeal to interfere unlawfully with a claimant’s freedom of expression, after tweets he had made were the subject of an NCHI, the details of which were recorded by the police. The Court of Appeal’s judgment led to a change in the guidance on NCHIs from the College of Policing. However, the controversy did not go away. In fact, it resurfaced in recent weeks after the arrest of the comedy writer Graham Linehan over social media posts which were initially treated as potentially inciting violence, but later downgraded to NCHIs. Following the concerns raised about Linehan’s arrest, the Met Police announced that it would no longer investigate NCHIs.

Now the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council have added their voice to the Met’s in urging for a rethink on how NCHIs are treated by police forces nationwide, ahead of a full review of the subject being published later this year. Whilst some critics have welcomed the news, others would prefer to abolish NCHIs altogether, and an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to that effect has been tabled in the House of Lords.