Non-crime hate incidents to be scrapped

15 comments

1. Non-crime hate incidents are to be scrapped under plans that police chiefs will present to the Home Secretary next month.

   Police leaders have decided that NCHIs are no longer “fit for purpose” after warnings that recording them undermines freedom of speech and [diverts officers away from fighting crime.](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/20/police-admit-not-sure-nchi-contain-crime-hate-free-speech/)

   Under the plans, [NCHIs will be replaced](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/10/scrap-non-crime-hate-incidents-police-watchdog-common-sense/) with a new “common sense” system, where only a fraction of such incidents will be recorded under the most serious category of anti-social behaviour.

   An NCHI falls short of being criminal but is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic. They stay on police records indefinitely and can come up in background checks.

   [The move to scrap them](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/18/scrap-non-crime-hate-incidents-police-chief-manchester/) follows high-profile cases such as that of [Graham Linehan, the Father Ted creator](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2025/09/02/graham-linehans-arrest-is-a-humiliating-new-low/), whose arrest for a series of posts on X was criticised by Donald Trump’s administration as a [“departure from democracy”.](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/09/03/us-linehan-arrest-democracy-trump-trans-police-censorship/)

   **Find out more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/12/22/non-crime-hate-incidents-to-be-scrapped/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_hate-incidents-to-be-scrapped/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/12/22/non-crime-hate-incidents-to-be-scrapped/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_reddit_hate-incidents-to-be-scrapped/)

2. We seem to get this story every week. Then someone else gets arrested for an opinion on Facebook.

3. Good… either something is a crime or it isn’t. The police shouldn’t be wasting time on non crimes.

4. Good. Total waste of police time.

5. Not strictly ‘to be scrapped’ more like a proposal to scrap them from chief constables.

   So will all prior records of NCHIs be wiped?

6. I never got the principle. If it is not a crime, what business have the police got in investigating it and what authority do they have in doing anything if they do. 

7. Good. They’re not crimes. They shouldn’t be taking up police resources.

8. Somehow I suspect police scotland will miss this memo

9. Good. They’ve become a weapon for activists to use against their critics. Completely discredited, not least because the police refused to exercise any common sense.

10. No shit!

11. “The new guidance, using the mnemonic PLANE, will require call handlers and officers to consider five principles before deciding whether to log an incident on intelligence databases: whether the response is Proportionate, whether the incident is Legal, and how Accountable, Necessary and Ethical any approach should be.”

    Not entirely scrapped but revised.

12. Perfect. Should’ve never of been a thing in the first place.

13. “…. and replaced by thought crime incidents”

14. good, the clue is the “non-crime” bit which should have seen the police respond with “not our department”

15. What! No more thought crimes? Starmer is losing his touch….

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