Lords vote to scrap non-crime hate incidents in major victory for free speech

The incidents would still allowed to be recorded if required to prevent or detect a crime.

Free Speech Union chief Lord Young and Lord Hogan-Howe, the former Met Commissioner, put forward the amendment to call for officers to police "streets not tweets".

Police forces have called to replace the system with a "common sense" system, where a small percentage of incidents would be recorded as anti-social behaviour.

An NCHI is defined as an incident which is not criminal, but is perceived to be motivated by hostility of prejudice towards a person with a particular characteristic.

Graham Linehan, creator of Father Ted, and gender-critical activist, was arrested after a series of posts on social media.

While journalist Allison Pearson was subjected to a police visit at her home on Remembrance Sunday - again, just for a social media post.

NCHIs have become notorious for their role in police treating off-hand comments like crimes.

Examples mentioned by Lord Young in the House included "a man accused of whistling the theme tune to Bob the Builder whenever he saw his neighbour, a woman who said on social media she thought her cat was a Methodist and two schoolgirls who told another girl she smelled like fish."

The Tory peer said NCHIs have a "chilling effect on free speech", as the incidents can appear on a record when applying for a voluntary role that requires an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

It could prevent someone from getting a role as a teacher or carer, he added.

Plans by police chiefs are set to be handed to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood later this month, who has signalled her support for the proposal.

The College of Policing and National Police Chiefs' Council have both recommended scrapping NCHIs in support of freedom of speech, and to allow officers to better use their time.

The Metropolitan Police said last year it will no longer investigate NCHIs after the force dropped a probe into Graham Linehan.

NCHIs were introduced after the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 and the inquiry into his death.

His mother, Labour peer Baroness Lawrence, defended their use and urged her fellow peers to consider "what implication" the abolition of NCHIs could have.

She said: "It depends on how you see non-crime hate and it depends on who’s at the receiving end of that.

"Now for me, it led to the murder of my son.

"Now, individuals who think they’ve got the right to walk around and talk about, especially, young black men in a certain way, what starts off as just verbal, it leads to violence."

Lord Young said verbal abuse would meet the threshold to be recorded for anti-social behaviour, and he had "no objection" to tracking that type of speech.

"I just want to exclude the more trivial things from being recorded and having the police waste so much time on them," he added.