Home Secretary Suella Braverman is to order police to only record non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) when absolutely necessary, which campaigners say is a major win for free speech.
Braverman said the draft guidelines, which will go before Parliament on Monday, will prevent police “wrongly getting involved in lawful debate.”
British police have been encouraging the public to report NCHIs, described as “any non-crime incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by hostility or prejudice,” on official hate crime sites.
But critics have called NCHIs an “Orwellian device” that encourage conduct that violates freedom of expression….