Police will be told to stop recording everyday rows and online
spats, as non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) are to be scrapped by
the government.
Over recent years, unclear guidance has led to officers being
called out to people's homes over insults and routine arguments.
A lack of clarity around when and how NCHIs should be recorded,
the rise of the digital age and social media, and inconsistent
approaches between police forces have led to them no longer being
fit for purpose.
In new measures announced today, NCHIs will be replaced with a
system that lets police get on with their jobs – preventing and
fighting real criminals to make communities safer.
After commissioning the College of Policing and National Police
Chiefs' Council for an urgent review of NCHI guidance, the
government is now accepting all their recommendations. The final
recommendations, published today, set out a series of
common-sense reforms to give police a clear, consistent process
for handling these types of incidents.
The new system will prevent police from recording lawful free
speech, whilst ensuring that reports from the public, which may
lead to genuine harm, get the right response. Police will still
be able to keep tabs on serious community tensions and protect
those who need it.
The Home Office will immediately begin working with policing
partners to put these recommendations into action. The
process of moving away from the old NCHI system has already
started by removing the code of practice.
Home Secretary said:
Under these reforms, forces will no longer be policing perfectly
legal tweets. Instead, they will be doing what they do best:
patrolling our streets, catching criminals and keeping
communities safe.
A key recommendation for the Home Office is to adopt a new
national standard for information recording and assessment – the
rules that govern how police record and count incidents. The
national standard was last updated in 2011 and is too broad. This
has led police to record reports that go beyond their core
duties, such as minor personal disagreements where offensive
language is used.
The Home Office will update the national standard with a narrower
definition setting out when police involvement is required. The
new threshold will be more closely tied to core police work:
preventing and detecting crime, protecting life and property, and
maintaining public order.
This means fewer reports will automatically trigger a police
record. Incidents that meet the new threshold will not be given
crime reference numbers and will not use criminal terminology
such as “suspect” and “victim”.
The government has already taken the first steps toward these
reforms with a recent amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to
revoke the statutory code of practice addressing the recording of
NCHIs. This will allow us to move quickly to bring in a better
system for both police and citizens.
More broadly, the government's social cohesion action plan,
Protecting What Matters, sets out how we will go further to
tackle rising levels of unacceptable hatred and discrimination
against minority groups in Britain.
Working with the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, the
government is ensuring robust use of existing hate crime and
public order legislation, wherever conduct meets the appropriate
threshold. is also reviewing existing
public order and hate crime legislation to test whether it is
effective and proportionate, particularly in response to protests
and the ‘stirring up' of hatred.
In the immediate term, funding to protect faith communities has
been increased to record levels, and the government
will continue to work with the police and security partners to
ensure protections for all faith communities remain
effective.
This announcement follows the Home Office unveiling in January
the largest reforms to policing since the police service was
founded 2 centuries ago, outlining a radical blueprint so local
forces protect their community, catch criminals and cut crime.
