The police must fight crime, not legal speech
The UK is supposed to be the home of free speech – and a country where the police chase criminals, not law abiding members of the public.
So I was horrified, last November, when police officers called on Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson. It was initially believed that they were investigating a so-called non-crime hate incident (or NCHI), based on a comment she'd posted on social media.
In my view the police should have only one overriding priority: catching criminals and protecting the public from crime. This emphatically does not extend to acting as the thought police or intervening when someone makes an off colour remark online.
People are perfectly entitled to say whatever they like, including things that are offensive, provided that they are not illegal. These boundaries are set out by Parliament in law. It's illegal to incite racial or religious hatred, express support for a proscribed terrorist organisation such as Hamas or to use threats or intimidation to harass someone.
But saying that women don't have penises, criticising a religion or simply saying something offensive are not illegal. It follows that people should not be harassed or investigated by the police for any of these things.
And yet they are. Police investigated and recorded personal data on around 13,000 NCHIs last year – taking up around 30,000 hours of police time. This personal data – where no crime has been committed – is then potentially disclosable by the police as part of an enhanced criminal record check for years to come.
NCHIs were never legislated for by Parliament. They were created through police guidance in the early 2000s in response to the murder of Stephen Lawrence and further entrenched in 2014. The inquiry into Stephen Lawrence's murder found that the previous extreme racism exhibited by his killers should have been identified and his death thereby prevented.
Where hatred is such that it is a likely to lead to an actual crime, then there is a good case for police taking an interest – as they would in relation to any intelligence that might be a precursor to criminal activity.
But over the years, NCHIs have expanded beyond all recognition and have strayed far from this original intention. Reporting in the Telegraph only yesterday showed that the police now don't even bother to analyse NCHIs for patterns of possible criminality.
NCHIs have been investigated and personal details recorded over the most absurdly trivial things. This has included singing a song with the word 'Africa' in the lyrics; commenting on EU citizens working here; a mobility scooter being ridden on a pavement; commenting on the trans debate; an intemperate email sent between family members and even playground arguments between children.
It is clear the police are now wasting colossal amounts of their time on NCHIs and infringing our ancient rights to free speech while they do so.
In 2023 while in government, Conservatives introduced tighter rules on NCHIs to try to stop this abuse. But a report by HM Inspector of Constabulary in September 2024 found that the new rules were being ignored: the Police had simply carried on as before.
I have raised this in Parliament over recent months and it's clear that the Labour government has no real intention of fixing this problem. This is why the Conservatives are now announcing a new policy: NCHIs as a category of incident should be scrapped in their entirety.Police should only investigate or record something where it is likely to be genuinely necessary to prevent or investigate crime. This will free up tens of thousands of hours of police time to catch real criminals and help restore free speech. Instead of policing Twitter, police should spend more time catching burglars and mobile phone thieves.
The Conservatives will table this as an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill currently going through Parliament and will force a vote. Then it will be clear which MPs are willing to stand up for common sense, getting police priorities straight and for free speech – and which MPs are not.
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