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 would remove the statutory basis for NCHIs.
A separate amendment tabled by Lord Young of Acton goes much further in seeking to abolish the recording of NCHIs altogether, meaning that police would no longer 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 prevent 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 among those to have been caught in the crosshairs. In 2024, Scottish pastor, Angus Cameron, received £5,500 for his unlawful detention by Police Scotland, as well as £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' would be logged in police records against his name despite it being confirmed that no criminal act had been committed. The payout came after he took legal action supported by The Christian Institute.
A freedom of information request by The Times newspaper in 2024 found that doctors, vicars and even primary school children were among the 13,200 NCHIs recorded in 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 new code of practice expected to introduce stronger protections for free 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 able to record unproven, politically motivated complaints against Christians and others," he said.
"These malicious allegations of being 'hateful' could seriously impact a person‘s career prospects.
"It’s Orwellian and it’s way past time not only for that system to be abolished but for all of the erroneous information held against innocent people to be deleted.
"The House of Lords has an opportunity to get rid of non-crime hate incident once and for all and I hope they take it."
