Home Secretary ignores backlash over threat to free speech
22 November 2024
The Home Secretary is planning to expand the recording of non-crime hate incidents despite the backlash over the threat to free speech.
Yvette Cooper is committed to reversing the Tories’ decision to downgrade the monitoring of the incidents, specifically in relation to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, so they can be logged by police.
Labour believes the current guidance to forces prevents officers from tracking tensions involving Jewish and Muslim communities that could escalate into violence and criminality.
It comes amid calls by senior Tory MPs to scrap the requirement for police to record non-crime hate incidents (NCHI) or further restrict the ability of officers to log them to protect free speech in the wake of the Allison Pearson row.
A Home Office source said: “It is part of our manifesto commitment so we will work with the College of Policing to understand the best way of doing that so police can assess where there is a high incidence of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crime.”
Pearson, an award-winning writer for The Telegraph, was being investigated by Essex Police for allegedly stirring up racial hatred with a social media post made in November last year. The force dropped the case on Thursday.
While Pearson was being investigated for an alleged crime, she initially thought an NCHI was being recorded against her. The case prompted criticism of NCHIs, which do not meet the criminal threshold but are recorded by police regardless.
Speaking on Radio 4’s PM, Pearson said: “The issue here is these non-crime hate incidents are out of control. Nobody with great knowledge of the law has ever suggested that there was any basis for charging me with anything.
“And we have to ask the question, why did Essex police persist in this? Why did they escalate it with me? I did not incite racial hate, nobody thinks I incited racial hate.
“I feel I was bullied and threatened, and this was wholly disproportionate. I won’t censor myself, but I will be more watchful in future.”
The plans to expand the recording of NCHI were first revealed in the summer but have recently come under fresh scrutiny.
Free speech campaigners are also threatening to take legal action against the Home Office if it goes ahead with plans to unpick rules laid down by Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, to stop police recording incidents just because someone was offended.
The rules, introduced last year, limited officers to recording personal data for NCHIs only where there was a “real risk of significant harm” to individuals or groups and a real risk that a future criminal offence could be committed against them.
However, a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in September found many forces were still failing to correctly apply the guidance.
It uncovered evidence that confusion over the rules meant officers were taking a risk-averse approach summed up as “if in doubt, record”. As a result, NCHIs were too often being logged for complaints that amounted to little more than people’s “hurt feelings”.
Police have recorded a non-crime hate incident after a person refused to shake hands, which the victim “perceived to be hate related due to gender identity”.
They also logged a “rough” haircut reported by a customer who claimed his barber was “aggressive” following a discussion about the Ukraine war.
Ms Cooper has urged police to use “common sense” when recording non-crime hate incidents and has pointed to recommendations by the HM inspectorate for improved training and clearer direction for officers.
A Home Office source said: “We support the Inspectorate and College of Policing assessment that there needs to be a common sense and consistent approach – that means that trivial, irrational or malicious cases should not be recorded.
“The Inspectorate has been clear that guidance is not being followed consistently and we’ll be working with them and the College of Policing to make sure that the recommendations are implemented.
“Over the past 12 months there has been a big increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and it’s really important that police forces are able to track and monitor that so that action can be taken to prevent harassment, crime or serious threats.”
Labour believes it can amend the guidelines to boost the recording of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia without changing the wider requirements to follow a common sense approach and not to record trivial or irrational incidents.
“Squaring the circle is what we are looking at mechanisms to do,” said a Home Office source, although they added that it was not being actively pursued at the moment.
A No 10 spokesman said Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, was clear that the police should be spending their time protecting the public and keeping streets safe.
“When it comes to those incidents we’ve also said that it’s vital we carefully consider how we balance the fundamental right to free speech and how police can gather information where relevant. We’re looking at how we can best ensure this is the case and will set out next steps in due course,” said the spokesman.
Loosening of the guidance
The Free Speech Union (FSU) and former police officer Harry Miller, chief executive of campaign group Fair Cop, have written to Ms Cooper threatening legal action if there is any loosening of the guidance on NCHIs.
The guidance was re-written by the Home Office and College of Policing under Mrs Braverman after Mr Miller won a Court of Appeal challenge over a police investigation into his tweets. The judges ruled the old NCHI guidance had been wrongly used and had a “chilling effect” on his freedom of speech.
Toby Young, director of the FSU, said: “The reason Suella Braverman tried to circumscribe the recording and retention of NCHIs isn’t because, as a Tory, she has more tolerance for anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hatred than the lovely and caring Yvette Cooper.
“It’s because the Court of Appeal in Miller vs College of Policing ruled that the guidance devised by the College, and the behaviour of the police in their efforts to comply with it, was unlawful.
“If Yvette Cooper scraps the statutory guidance and encourages the police to record even more NCHIs, she will be ordering them to go back to breaking the law. That’s not a great look for the Home Secretary.”
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