Police leaders in England and Wales are preparing to recommend the abolition of so‑called “non‑crime hate incidents” (NCHIs), proposing instead a leaner system that focuses on serious anti‑social behaviour and clearer protection for lawful speech. The change, expected to be endorsed by the Home Secretary in early 2026, marks one of the most significant overhauls of hate‑related policing in a decade and follows years of controversy over free speech, data retention and police resources.

Image Illustration. Photo by Dylan4photography on Unsplash

What Are Non‑Crime Hate Incidents?

Non‑crime hate incidents are events reported to the police as being motivated by hostility toward protected characteristics – such as race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity – but which do not cross the legal threshold for a criminal offence. Under existing College of Policing guidance, officers can record an NCHI based largely on the perception of the victim or any other person, even where no crime is found and no further action is taken. These records have in some cases appeared on enhanced background checks, raising concerns about their impact on employment and reputation.

Police Chiefs Call Time on a Controversial Category

A joint review by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing is set to recommend that NCHIs be scrapped altogether and replaced with a “common sense” system of intelligence‑led recording. According to reporting by BBC and other UK outlets, the review – due to be published in early 2026 – will suggest that only the most serious incidents are logged, and then primarily as anti‑social behaviour or intelligence rather than as a quasi‑criminal marker.

Under the proposed model, reports of hostility that do not amount to crimes would be assessed against a checklist designed to weed out trivial disputes, online spats and expressions of lawful opinion. Where there is no criminal offence and no realistic risk of escalation, incidents would either not be recorded at all or captured only as low‑level intelligence rather than tagged as hate‑related behaviour.

Backlash Over Free Speech and ‘Culture War’ Policing

The planned shift is the culmination of intense political and legal pressure. Critics have long argued that NCHIs dragged police into “culture war” disputes and chilled legitimate debate, especially on contentious issues such as gender identity and religion.

In a landmark 2021 judgment, the Court of Appeal ruled in Miller v College of Policing that the recording of a man’s gender‑critical tweets as an NCHI had a “chilling effect” on his freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found that guidance allowing wide‑ranging recording without robust thresholds was unlawful and needed tightening.

Subsequent Home Office guidance in 2023 ordered forces in England and Wales to stop recording non‑crime incidents which were “trivial or irrational” and to consider the potential impact on individuals’ rights before logging personal data. But police leaders now believe incremental reforms have not gone far enough and that the category itself should be retired.

Met Police and High‑Profile Cases Helped Tip the Balance

The Metropolitan Police signalled the direction of travel earlier this year when it announced it would stop investigating most non‑crime hate incidents, arguing that officers needed to “focus on core policing” rather than online arguments and offensive but lawful speech. Other forces have quietly scaled back similar work, especially where it overlaps with content moderation by social media platforms.

High‑profile cases have amplified public concern. Comedy writer Graham Linehan, for example, has repeatedly clashed with police and platforms over gender‑critical posts; in one episode a social media‑related arrest was later downgraded and heavily criticised by free‑speech advocates. Incidents like these have been cited by commentators and civil liberties groups as evidence that NCHIs were being used to police opinion rather than crime.

Hate Crime Levels Remain High – and Under‑Reported

The move to abolish NCHIs comes against a backdrop of persistently high levels of recorded hate crime, even as police and statisticians warn that many offences never reach official figures.

Official Home Office data show that police in England and Wales recorded 140,561 hate crime offences in the year to March 2024, a 5% decrease on the previous year but still well above levels a decade ago. Around 70% of those offences were racially motivated, with 98,799 race hate crimes logged that year.

Religious hate crime has been rising sharply. In the same 12‑month period, religiously motivated offences jumped by 25%, from 8,370 to 10,484 incidents, driven largely by a surge in offences targeting Jewish and Muslim communities following the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas conflict in October 2023.

Longer‑term survey data suggest the true scale remains higher than police figures alone imply. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates an average of around 176,000 hate crime incidents a year between April 2022 and March 2025, with about 44% of those incidents coming to police attention.

Supporters Say Scrapping NCHIs Will Free Up Officers

Senior policing figures argue that abolishing NCHIs will allow officers to concentrate on serious crime and high‑risk threats, from domestic abuse to violent extremism, rather than spending time assessing complaints about offensive but legal comments on social media.

Nick Herbert, chair of the College of Policing, and Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, have both previously warned that police risk losing public confidence if they are seen as “the thought police” rather than guardians of public safety. They and others have suggested that a slimmed‑down system of intelligence recording – focused on patterns of harassment and threats – would still allow forces to monitor community tensions without tagging individuals for life over a single complaint.

Civil Liberties vs. Community Protection

Civil liberties organisations have broadly welcomed moves to curb NCHIs, arguing that recording people’s lawful views in police databases risks a “shadow criminal record” and deters open debate. But some hate crime charities and community groups caution that intelligence on non‑criminal incidents can be vital for spotting escalation, especially where vulnerable minorities are repeatedly targeted.

Academic studies of hate crime have long highlighted the link between low‑level harassment and more serious violence, emphasising that seemingly minor incidents can create a climate of fear in which victims alter their daily routines or withdraw from public life. Advocates worry that if police no longer systematically log non‑criminal abuse, emerging patterns may be missed until after a serious offence occurs.

What Happens Next?

The NPCC and College of Policing recommendations are due to be submitted to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in early 2026, with full implementation – including retraining of call‑handlers and frontline officers – expected to begin that January across all forces in England and Wales.

Under the proposed arrangements, forces would still be able to log intelligence about repeat perpetrators or hotspots, but the formal label of “non‑crime hate incident” – with its potential to appear on enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks – would disappear. Ministers are also expected to consider whether legislation is needed to cement the changes and head off future legal challenges.

A Balancing Act Between Rights and Security

Scrapping non‑crime hate incidents will not end the debate over how best to tackle hatred and protect free expression. For police, it sharpens an already delicate balancing act: respecting civil liberties while responding robustly to harassment, intimidation and abuse that fall short of criminality but can still corrode social cohesion.

As hate crime levels remain elevated and communities feel the strain of domestic and international tensions, the success of the reforms will likely be judged less on the disappearance of a controversial label than on whether victims still feel able to report what happens to them – and whether police have the time and tools to act when those reports point to real danger.