What are ‘non-crime hate incidents’ which have become so hated in the UK?

Children in England and Wales have been investigated by police for calling each other names, a study has found.

Last month, a British journalist revealed that she had been visited by police at her Essex home over a post she wrote relating to Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, on X a year earlier.

On November 12, Allison Pearson, a columnist for the right-wing newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, claimed she was being investigated for a “non-crime hate incident” (NCHI). The police later disputed this, saying she was being investigated for a potential criminal offence of stirring up racial hatred, rather than an NCHI, but in any case, the probe was dropped a few days later.

Whether the police were investigating Pearson for a non-crime hate incident or, indeed, for a criminal offence, the row over her experience has brought discussions about the contentious practice of recording NCHIs to the fore.

This week, Nick Herbert, the chairman of the College of Policing, said the government should consider scrapping NCHIs altogether, and claimed the recording of NCHIs has become an “impediment to the police”.

While some want the practice scrapped, however, others assert that recording NCHIs is important.