Past non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) should be erased from people's records as part of planned reforms to the police system, free speech campaigners have warned.
NCHIs will be scrapped by all police forces under proposals set to be presented to Shabana Mahmood next month.
Police leaders believe NCHIs are no longer "fit for purpose", following warnings they undermine free speech and divert officers away from fighting crime.
Instead, they are to be replaced with a "common sense" system, meaning just a small portion of incidents would now be reported under a serious category of anti-social behaviour.
TRENDING
Stories
Videos
Your Say
Campaigners have warned that older NCHIs would stay on people's records unless at least 100,000 from the past six years were erased.
An NCHI is not a criminal offence but is an act perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic.
Personal data in an NCHI record can currently be retained on police databases for a maximum of six years before being reviewed.
Lord Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph: "There will be at least 100,000 existing NCHIs sitting on people’s records and still disclosable on DBS checks."
NCHIs will be scrapped by all police forces under proposals set to be presented to Shabana Mahmood next month
|PA
Lord Young has joined forces with former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Hogan-Howe, to table an amendment to the Government's policing bill that would mandate the deletion of all historic NCHIs from police databases.
The proposed change would only permit retention where records remain pertinent to active criminal investigations or prosecutions.
Lord Young said he plans to bring the amendment to a vote in the House of Lords during February or March, The Telegraph reports.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing will publish their review in January, including plans for NCHIs to be scrapped, which will then be given to the Home Secretary.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Lord Toby Young (pictured) and Lord Hogan-Howe will table an amendment to the policing bill in the coming months
| GB NEWSThe new scheme would see only the most serious incidents recorded as anti-social behaviour.
The review was announced after the Metropolitan Police said in October it would no longer investigate NCHIs.
"The Commissioner has been clear he doesn’t believe officers should be policing toxic culture war debates, with current laws and rules on inciting violence online leaving them in an impossible position," the force said at the time.
"As a result, the Met will no longer investigate non-crime hate incidents."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We’ve been clear that we need a consistent, common-sense approach that protects the fundamental right to free speech.
"A review is currently underway into public order and hate crime laws.
"We do not wish to pre-empt the final findings of the review, which we have asked to be completed at pace."
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter
More From GB News