Thousands of Scottish police still not trained on new hate crime law
More than a third of Scotland’s police officers have not received training on Humza Yousaf’s “confusing” new hate crime law, it has emerged amid warnings of a deluge of cases.
The Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said they had been allocated only a “cheap” two-hour training course that was not sufficient.
David Kennedy, its general secretary, said 6,000 of Police Scotland’s 16,000 officers had not even completed that yet and admitted he had not either.
Mr Kennedy warned the legislation will mean a huge increase in workload for the force, with families, neighbours and work colleagues being “drawn into a criminal law environment”.
He argued the SNP-Green government at Holyrood had failed to provide the force with the funding it required to train officers properly if it wanted to pass such legislation.
A person commits an offence if they communicate material, or behave in a manner “that a reasonable person would consider to be threatening or abusive”, with the intention of stirring up hatred based on the protected characteristics.
But concerns have been expressed that the legislation’s definition of a hate crime is too ambiguous, leading to a torrent of vexatious complaints being made to police.
‘Lack of face-to-face training’
Asked whether officers were ready for the Act being enforced, Mr Kennedy told BBC Radio Scotland: “Some officers might feel prepared but we’ve raised concerns because it’s only been a two-hour online package that officers have been given.
“There’s been various other webinars that Police Scotland have put on but they are not mandatory and we now know I think approximately 6,000 officers are still to go through the online training.
“And we’ve been complaining for several years now about the online training and the lack of face-to-face training that’s required.”
He said officers received two days of face-to-face training after the Stephen Lawrence inquiry but “they haven’t had anything like this for this new law”.
Attacking SNP ministers, he said: “Government have to, if they are going to pass these new laws, they have to provide the finances for the police officers to be trained properly so they can enact these new laws and they haven’t done that.”
Mr Kennedy said the Scottish Government had provided no extra money or officers for the police to enforce the Act, accusing them of having “not done any of the things that we actually require to make it a success”.
‘Fraught with difficulty’
“It’s going to bring difficult situations where members of the same family, neighbours, work colleagues, politicians, journalists, anyone you can think of is going to be drawn into a criminal law environment,” he said.
“And that would never have confronted us before. The role of the police is we have to apply the law, and it’s going to be an extremely difficult time. I think it’s going to be confusing and fraught with difficulty.”
Asked if the legislation could be “weaponised” by political activists, he said: “Absolutely, you only need to go on X [formerly Twitter] to see. I think there’ll be certain groups lined up waiting to make complaints about certain individuals.”
Pressed by whether the new law risked angering both sides in controversial debates, he told the Today programme: “That will cause havoc with trust in police in Scotland, it certainly will reduce that.”
He contrasted Police Scotland’s pledge to investigate every hate crime complaint with a recent announcement that some “minor” offences will no longer be fully investigated.
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Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservatives’ justice spokesman, said: “Front line officers and Police Scotland will pay the price for Humza Yousaf’s hate crime law while he arrogantly thinks he knows best.
“They will be forced to consider every complaint, no matter how petty or groundless, while telling people they don’t have the resources to investigate real crimes.
“The SNP, with Labour backing, passed this law three years ago, so it’s staggering that thousands of officers have still not been trained.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have worked with partners, including Police Scotland, to ensure effective implementation of the legislation and the timetable for commencement has allowed for the delivery of a robust package of training and guidance for police officers.
“Training of police officers is an operational matter to Police Scotland, with whom we will continue to work closely and the chief constable has said police officers are being trained to apply the law in a ‘measured way, using their discretion and their common sense’.”
