The Free Speech Union has been campaigning against the recording of ‘non-crime hate incidents’ (NCHIs) for five years and, finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Opposition, has said she is determined to stop this practice. To that end, the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, will table an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that will consign NCHIs to the dustbin of history.

We are therefore asking our members and supporters to use the template below to write to their MPs to urge them to vote for this amendment. 

For those unfamiliar with this Orwellian concept, which the College of Policing came up with in 2014, an NCHI is a record the police make when someone accuses you of a ‘hate crime’ and they can find no evidence a crime has been committed. That sounds odd. Why would the police bother to record ‘non-crimes’ when there are so many actual crimes they could be investigating? It’s even odder when you consider some of the reports the police have followed up, such as the man in Bedfordshire who ended up with an NCHI recorded against him after his neighbour told the police he started whistling the theme tune to Bob the Builder whenever he saw him.

If these episodes were a rarity, perhaps it wouldn’t matter. But according to FOI requests submitted by the Telegraph, 119,934 were recorded between 2014 and 2019, an average of over 65 a day, and there’s no reason to think that number has fallen since. A statutory instrument was passed in 2023 designed to get the police to use more common sense when it comes to NCHIs – urging them not to log playground incidents, for instance. But data obtained by the Free Speech Union show the new guidance is being ignored. In some areas, the number being recorded has actually gone up since 2023, such as Staffordshire, where it’s increased by 140 per cent. It’s time we did away with NCHIs altogether.

Having an  NCHI recorded against your name is a serious matter. It can show up on your criminal record if you apply for a job that requires you to carry out an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. That means if you want to work as a teacher – or volunteer with the Samaritans – you might not be able to because you’ve committed a ‘non-crime’. 

It’s long past time that the police stopped recording and retaining this data. No one should be stopped from getting a job because they’re guilty of nothing more serious than ‘hurty words’. The police should stop investigating our tweets and focus on policing our streets.