Police officers should be banned from recording “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs) in all but a few cases, the Conservatives have said.
Kemi Badenoch stated the party will introduce an amendment to the government's Crime and Policing Bill, effectively banning officers from logging these incidents unless a senior officer believes the information is crucial for preventing or solving future crimes.
NCHIs are currently recorded as incidents perceived to be motivated by prejudice based on characteristics like race or gender, even when they don't meet the threshold of a criminal offense.
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.
But Mrs Badenoch said NCHIs had “wasted police time chasing ideology and grievance instead of justice” and suggested officers were “trawling social media for things someone might find offensive” rather than “fighting crime and protecting families”.
She said: “No wonder public trust in the police is falling. People see officers distracted from real threats and politicians too scared to act.
“Keir Starmer needs to stop hiding behind weasel words. Stand up, show some courage, and back real policing over political correctness.
“If Labour were serious about the violence in our towns and cities, they’d back our amendment and fix this.”
In 2023, the Conservative government changed the guidance on NCHIs so that the identity of someone alleged to have carried out an offence only be recorded if there was a real risk of “significant harm” to individuals or groups, or of a criminal offence being committed in future.
The new guidelines also instructed officers not to record an NCHI if the complaint was “trivial” or the incident was not motivated by “intentional hostility or prejudice”.
The number of NCHIs appears to have fallen slightly since 2021, according to figures obtained last year by the Daily Telegraph under freedom of information laws.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who was policing minister when the new guidelines were introduced, said: “Our amendment will stop police forces from wasting time on this Orwellian nonsense and get them back to doing the job the public expects: fighting real crime.
“The Conservative Party will always stand up for free speech, common sense.”
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