Police must not investigate free speech, Tories say

Police should investigate non-crime hate incidents only when these risk "imminently breaking the law", the Conservatives have said.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp, the policing minister in the previous government, said the police guidance on dealing with hate speech should be updated to ensure officers were not "policing thought" or "free speech".

His comments follow a row between Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson and Essex Police, who are investigating an allegation she breached the Public Order Act in a social media post last year.

A non-crime hate incident is recorded where no criminal offence has been committed, but the person reporting it believes it was motivated by hostility.

In his first speech since being appointed shadow home secretary by new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, Philp told the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners conference in Westminster a change in guidance was urgently needed.

Currently the government guidance covers only when police should record the personal details of those accused of hate speech.

Philp called for it to be widened to cover when police should deal with these incidents at all, to create "quite a high bar" and to avoid "wasting" their time and resources.

On Tuesday, NPCC chairman Gavin Stephens said non-crime hate incidents needed to be investigated so that "precursors to violence" were not missed.

But Philp told police chiefs their officers should "concentrate on investigating and preventing crime".

"Distractions from that mission should be jettisoned... We must use officers' time to protect the public and catch criminals. Offensive speech is not the same as illegal speech."

Non-crime hate investigations "should not be directed at nine-year-old children involved in playground spats as reported in the Times last week", only "where "there's a real risk of imminent criminality", Philp said.

The Home Office has been approached for a response.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has previously said officers should use "a common sense and consistent approach" to recording non-crime hate incidents.

The Home Office has been reviewing how forces balance investigating these incidents with the right to free speech.

Last week, a Downing Street spokesperson said it was "important" that the police captured data relating to non-crime hate incidents "to help prevent serious crimes which may later occur".

“This must be balanced with the fundamental right to free speech and also ensuring that the police can spend their time dealing with the issues that matter most to our communities."

The current guidance for dealing with non-crime hate incidents was introduced by then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman in June 2023, when Philp was policing minister.

She called for forces to record these incidents only "when it is absolutely necessary and proportionate and not simply because someone is offended".

Last week, officers from Essex Police visited Pearson to arrange an interview about a post on the social media platform, X.

The force later said the interview was about a potential allegation of incitement to racial hatred online.

In a Telegraph article, Pearson said she was told by the officers who came to her home they were looking into a non-crime hate incident, but was not told which post this concerned.

She denies stirring up racial hatred, and has described what happened as “Kafkaesque”.

Essex Police said “at no stage” did its officers tell her the investigation was related to a non-crime hate incident. It has asked the Crown Prosecution Service for “investigative advice”.