Shadow Home Secretary calls on the Government to urgently change rules on Non-Crime Hate Incidents so police officers can “apply common sense”

Today 20^th November the Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP is calling for a change in the rules about the way police handle Non-Crime Hate Incidents (NCHIs).

In his first major speech as Shadow Home Secretary to The National Police Chiefs' Council Summit, Philp also urges the Government to do more to back Britain's police officers.

Speaking at the Summit, the Shadow Home Secretary, will say:  “The Police, in my view, should concentrate on investigating and preventing crime. Non crime hate investigations should not trespass upon free speech”. 

“I call on the Government to urgently ensure the Guidance is re-written to ensure that, only where there is a real risk of imminent criminality, should police get involved. We must use officers' time to protect the public and catch criminals. Offensive speech is not the same as illegal speech.”

He will go on to tell Chiefs: “You are not the thought police. I call on police forces to apply common sense and not waste time and resources where there is no criminality, or imminent risk of it.”

The Shadow Home Secretary will also commit to supporting a number of measures that will enable officers to use their powers more confidently to protect the public: 

“I am concerned officers are losing the confidence to exercise their powers – such as use of force, high speed pursuit and stop and search – as required to keep the public safe and catch criminals.  In Government, we developed proposals including anonymity for firearms officers who are prosecuted, a higher threshold for IOPC referral to the CPS, faster and more common-sense IOPC investigation processes and a change to the standard required for a defence in misconduct proceedings.”

“But I urge the Government to go even further. I believe that it should be a defence to both misconduct and criminal proceedings if an officer can show that they materially followed their training or standard procedures in exercising police powers.”

“Officers take risks to keep us safe.  So, we should make sure that are always treated reasonably and fairly in return.”

Under the Conservatives, there were record numbers of police officers on our streets and frontline funding increased £922 million this year to record levels.  Labour has not yet made the funding commitments needed to ensure record officer numbers are maintained.

Katy Bourne OBE, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, said:

"It is vital that the Shadow Home Secretary has a good relationship with police chiefs, so today is very encouraging.

"His speech touched on a number of important issues that we feel strongly about. The Shadow Home Secretary is absolutely right about NCHIs, and I hope the Government listen to him.

"I look forward to working closely with him to help hold the Government to account on the important issue of policing."

Donna Jones, Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and Isle of Wight and Vice Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners said:

"The relationship between the Shadow Home Secretary and senior police chiefs is vital. He has got off on the right foot here today.

"I hope the Government takes heed of his comments on NCHIs, it really is a big issue for frontline policing.

"After today, I am excited to see how we can work together to hold the Government to account."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• 147,746 full-time equivalent (FTE) officers and 149,769 in headcount terms, were in post as at 31 March 2024 in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. This is the highest number of police officers since comparable records began (in the year ending March 2003), both on an FTE and headcount basis, since comparable records began in the year ending March 2003 (Home Office, Accredited Official Statistics, 24 July 2024, link).

• The Conservative Government delivered on its manifesto commitment to recruit over 20,000 extra police officers, helping to keep our streets safe. We delivered on our manifesto commitment of delivering 20,000 additional police officers – higher than 2010 levels (Home Office, National Statistics, 24 January 2024, link).

• The Conservative Government took action to cut crime by over 50 per cent since March 2010, excluding fraud, making our streets and communities safer. In the year ending March 2010 there were 9,544,000 offences in England and Wales (excluding fraud) and by the year ending June 2024 this number had fallen to 4,722,000 (ONS, Crime Survey for England and Wales, 24 October 2024, link).

• The Conservative Government boosted funding by £922 million extra for 2024-25. This meant that police funding for 2024-25 is £18.4 billion, representing 30.7 per cent cash terms increase compared to 2019-20, keeping communities safe (Home Office, Press Release, 14 December 2023, link).