House of Lords urged to back abolition of non-crime hate incidents

The House of Lords is being urged to vote in favour of abolishing controversial non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs). 

Peers are expected to debate an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill today that might remove the statutory basis for NCHIs. 

A separate amendment tabled by Lord Young of Acton goes much further in searching for to abolish the recording of NCHIs altogether, meaning that police would not be allowed to log such incidents where no crime occurred.

Lord Young’s amendment, which is supported by other peers including Lord Hogan-Howe, also seeks to delete historic NCHIs and stop them from appearing on enhanced DBS checks. 

The government has been under growing pressure to abolish NCHIs, with critics warning of a ‘chilling effect’ on free speech. 

Street preachers are amongst those to have been caught within the crosshairs. In 2024, Scottish pastor, Angus Cameron, received £5,500 for his illegal detention by Police Scotland, in addition to £9,400 in legal costs after he was wrongfully arrested over a ‘hate-crime’ incident. He had been told that a ‘non-crime hate incident report’ can be logged in police records against his name despite it being confirmed that no criminal act had been committed. The payout got here after he took legal motion supported by The Christian Institute. 

A freedom of data request by The Times newspaper in 2024 found that doctors, vicars and even primary school children were among the many 13,200 NCHIs recorded within the 12 months to June 2024.

The government has said that current NCHI recording is “not fit for purpose” and has commissioned a review, with a recent code of practice expected to introduce stronger protections without cost speech.

Simon Calvert, Deputy Director for Public Affairs at The Christian Institute, appealed to peers to support the amendments and scrap NCHIs completely. 

“It’s shocking to think that for years we’ve had a system where Police have been capable of record unproven, politically motivated complaints against Christians and others,” he said.

“These malicious allegations of being ‘hateful’ could seriously impact an individual‘s profession prospects.

“It’s Orwellian and it’s well past time not just for that system to be abolished but for all the erroneous information held against innocent people to be deleted.

“The House of Lords has a possibility to eliminate non-crime hate incident once and for all and I hope they take it.”