Overview
- Ministers accepted a College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council review on Monday, started revoking the NCHI code of practice, and will install a narrower national recording standard.
- The new rules tie police involvement to core duties like preventing and detecting crime and maintaining public order, so fewer reports will be logged and qualifying entries will not use crime numbers or criminal terms.
- Forces will add a triage step led by experienced officers to filter out lawful disputes, and past NCHIs will not be wiped automatically from people’s records.
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the change ends officers pursuing lawful online posts so they can focus on catching criminals, while critics warn it could miss patterns that lead to harm.
- Neville Lawrence and Baroness Doreen Lawrence cautioned that dropping routine recording risks letting abuse escalate into violence, as opposition figures called the plan a rebrand that still logs personal data and urged proof it will free up police time.