Police should use ‘common sense’ when recording non-crime hate incidents, says policing minister

Dame Diana Johnson defends principle of recording occurrences and indicates rules could be widened for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

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Police should use “common sense” when recording non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs), the policing minister has said.
Dame Diana Johnson admitted there was “confusion” among officers in applying the rules for recording the incidents.
But she defended the principle of recording them and indicated that the rules could be widened for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia amid concerns that abuse of Jews and Muslims that could escalate into violence, is not being picked up.
Her comments came as it emerged that the police force investigating a newspaper columnist for allegedly inciting racial hatred has recorded 1,500 NCHIs in the past two years.
Essex police logged 702 NCHIs between June 2023 and June 2024 and 834 in the 12 months before that, Freedom of Information responses revealed.
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This year a shopkeeper “suspect” was recorded on the force’s hate incident database for refusing a person entry to his shop because they had a guide dog with them.
Another was logged when a complainant said they felt their bank was being difficult with them due to their “skin colour and height”.
It follows controversy over Essex Police’s decision to investigate a year-old tweet by Allison Pearson, a Telegraph journalist, who was visited by officers at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday to invite her to a voluntary interview.
Pearson’s tweet is being treated as an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred, rather than an NCHI.
Speaking on Times Radio, Dame Diana pointed to a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary which had identified “confusion” over police officers’ decisions to record NCHIs.
It found this confusion over the rules meant officers were taking a risk-averse approach summed up as “if in doubt, record a crime”. As a result, NCHIs were too often being logged for complaints that amounted to little more than people’s “hurt feelings”.
“I would say we have to have common sense,” said Dame Diana. “There are instances where NCHIs should be recorded. There is also an issue where there is a need for more training and clarity about what is appropriate. Being consistent and having a common sense approach to this is important.
“This came out of the Macpherson inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder, recognising that joined-together intelligence can be useful for the police in dealing with what can develop into criminal offences.”
She added: “It’s also important to note that for example around the rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia over recent times, that any hostility that might be focused towards individuals. That is a matter for the police to consider whether they need to record that. That’s one of the examples.”
The previous Tory government tightened the rules for recording NCHIs amid concerns that they were threatening free speech and diverting police from focusing on fighting crime.
Under the change, officers are only allowed to record an NCHI if the incident is “clearly motivated by intentional hostility” and where there is a “real risk of escalation causing significant harm or a criminal offence”.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is looking to strengthen the guidance because of concerns that the crackdown has prevented police from recording anti-Semitic and Islamophobic abuse.
She is believed to be looking to reverse the Tories’ decision to downgrade the monitoring of NCHIs, specifically in relation to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, so they can be logged by police.
Home Office sources said the incidents would only be recorded where “proportionate and necessary” to protect Jewish and Muslim individuals and communities from abusive and hateful comments and behaviour, while also preserving the “fundamental right” to free speech.
Gavin Stephens, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), defended the use of non-crime hate incidents to detect and record “precursors to violence.”
“Hate left unaddressed, whether that’s propagated online or in person, has real world consequences, and we saw that at its most severe this this summer, where left unchecked, hate can have real damage from on communities,” he told The Telegraph at Tuesday’s NPCC summit.
“One of the things that we’re really, really clear on is that we do not want to miss precursors to violence, because we know that if we miss those precursors to violence, then the consequences can be severe.”
Emily Spurrell, chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said hate crime was under-reported and, as a member of the public, she would expect them to investigate all reports.
“When you look at hate crime across the country, it’s actually under-reported. We know that there are lots of hate crimes happening that actually people don’t necessarily have the confidence to report yet, because they’re not always sure that they’re going to get the right response.
“So from my perspective as a representative of the public, I would expect the police to investigate every report of hate crime, and obviously they will make that judgment if it meets the threshold of being a crime, then the appropriate process will be followed.
“I think it’s important that we set out very clearly that actually if hate crime is left unchallenged, then we see the consequences of that.”
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