The FSU’s latest research briefing on the free speech crisis in British policing was published earlier this month, and we’re delighted to report that it has since gained significant media traction (e.g., Christian Institute, Epoch Times, Spiked, Sunday Times, Times).
Authored by our Research Officer, Carrie Clark, the briefing reveals that a majority of police forces provide next to no training to officers on freedom of speech while a huge amount of time is spent on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training. Partly as a result, the police have neglected the protection for freedom of expression in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, as well as common law free speech protections, when investigating and recording ‘non-crime hate incidents’. (You can watch a clip of me discussing the findings on GB News here.)
The FSU submitted Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to all 41 English and Welsh police forces, excluding the British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and Ministry of Defence Police. Nine forces failed to respond within the statutory deadline or notified us that their response was indefinitely delayed, 10 forces provided partial information, and 22 answered in full.
Based on these responses, Carrie calculated that 78% of the police forces who responded to our requests are providing no training at all on Article 10, or providing no more than one line on it. The remainder did not answer the question.
By contrast, 32 forces answered a question asking for details of the training carried out in relation to EDI. One force claimed to hold no information on the subject and a further four stated that EDI was so highly integrated into every aspect of their training that it would exceed the cost limit of the Freedom of Information Act to provide the necessary information. Fourteen forces described EDI training as a “golden thread” running through every part of their training or reported that EDI was integral to standard training.
This means that for 56% of the police forces we surveyed, EDI is inextricably embedded in their training.
If Suella Braverman is serious about wanting to rein in the police’s nasty habit of recording NCHIs against anyone accused of saying something politically incorrect, it is essential that England and Wales’s 41 police forces receive proper free speech training.
You can read the FSU’s report here.
