Murdo Fraser said the force had ‘serious questions’ to answer
We might be living in topsy-turvy world when Murdo Fraser has a point. Honestly, the whole idea of the police keeping "hate" notes on you when you haven't committed a crime is pretty dystopian.
The police keep all sorts of records on people. Have done for years. Not sure he does have a point. And nobody owes him anything either. He's not a minister. He's not in government. He's a list MSP who long outlived his welcome and his talents
Now if we want to talk about police records in general, which we should be talking about instead of a focus on the new hate speech bill, which is frankly a total red herring, I'd give him more credence. Murdo here has no problem with intelligence about who you associate with being held, or your number plate scans being recorded, or what marches you have been on to protest about anything
These NCHI's can show up on DBS checks and could therefore affect someone's employment. The threshold for it is abysmally low, mere perception is enough.
His tweet was a nonsense, but making it into a police record is ridiculous.
England has already stopped doing this after a supreme court case (Miller v College of Policing) ruled it was "a real and significant interference with right to freedom of expression".
https://www.mygov.scot/enhanced-disclosure here's where they could potentially appear. DBS being an England and Wales thing. If this bill is going to have any chance of lasting (which it won't) I'd expect this to be updated pretty quickly
It should also be noted disclosure scotland are not the police. Who you would expect to record complaints against individuals, if only to not reinvestigate. So Murdo just talking out his complete backside, as per usual
Murdo is just being a reactionary prick, which plays well to his base, which wants to stir up hatred against certain groups, for example, catholics or trans people.
NCHI recording is necessary for statistical purposes, as well as for identifying clusters of hate incidents so that resources can be allocated.
Personal data is not attached to NCHIs unless the instance poses the risk of significant harm to an individual or group.