More than 7,000 hate crimes logged in the first week of new law, say police

7,000 hate crime complaints made

More than 7,000 hate crime complaints have been made in the first week of a controversial new law coming into force, Police Scotland have announced.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act took effect on April 1, sparking a deluge of complaints.

Between April 1 and April 7, the force said, 7,152 complaints were made online.

As well as the more than 7,000 online reports, police also dealt with 430 incidents in the first week where a hate crime tag was added, while there were 34 calls to either 101 or 999 relating to a hate crime and 141 emails sent to Police Scotland for the same purpose.

But of these, 240 were recorded as hate crimes – 3.3% of all reports – while 30 were logged as non-crime hate incidents, meaning they did not meet the threshold for a criminal offence.

The vast majority of complaints, police said, were made anonymously.

Slides produced by Police Scotland also showed two complaints made under the new Act stemming from the Old Firm match on Sunday.

Concerns had been raised ahead of the legislation being enforced of both the impact on free speech and the readiness of officers to deal with it.

According to the slides, more than four out of five (80.49%) of officers have undertaken the two-hour training course on the application of the legislation.

A spokesperson for the force said: “This data highlights the substantial increase in the number of online hate reports being received since April 1.

“This significant demand continues to be managed within our contact centres and, so far, the impact on frontline policing, our ability to answer calls and respond to those who need our help in communities across Scotland has been minimal.

“All complaints received are reviewed by officers, supported by dedicated hate crime advisers, and dealt with appropriately, whether that is being progressed for further assessment, or closed as they do not meet the criteria under the legislation”.

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