Hate crime: One complaint logged 'every 22 seconds' as concerns mount over impact on police

An SNP minister who is overseeing the hate crime legislation has had a fake complaint made in her name submitted to police.

The new hate crime law came in from Monday. Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Officers have reportedly been flooded with one hate crime complaint every 22 seconds amid concerns the controversial new legislation is placing the “biggest ever burden placed on Scotland’s police force”.

The figures emerged as the minister responsible for the Scottish Government's controversial hate crime legislation revealed she had a fake complaint reported in her name, and warned about “hysteria” over the new law since enforcement began by Police Scotland on Monday.

The Scotsman understands that 3,800 hate reports tallied up by Police Scotland within the first 24 hours of the Act coming into force, with just 1,800 of these being processed. That would mean Police Scotland was being overwhelmed with one report of a hate incident every 22 seconds.

SNP Victims and Community Safety Minister, Siobhian Brown, Picture: Lisa Ferguson

The Scottish Conservatives have suggested that the force could receive an estimated 1.4 million complaints in the first year, although the rate of incidents being flagged is unlikely to keep the same pace. Police Scotland has so far declined to say how many hate crime complaints it has received since Monday.

Scottish Tory shadow justice secretary, Russell Findlay, warned the Hate Crime Act is the “biggest ever burden placed on Scotland’s police force”.

Mr Findlay’s party is now set to launch a petition in which Scots will be able to tell the SNP to scrap the law.

He said: “Humza Yousaf’s dangerous Hate Crime Act is already being weaponised on an industrial scale by thin-skinned troublemakers, which is placing the biggest ever burden on Scotland’s police officers.

“Within 24 hours of it coming into force, Police Scotland has been inundated with complaints, many of them spurious nonsense from activists with an axe to grind.

“At this rate the number of hate complaints will overtake the number of real crimes that are recorded each year. Hardworking officers want to protect our communities not waste precious time investigating every single perceived hate crime.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Information around number of reports is being collated and will be published when available. We've not provided information to any media outlet."

SNP Victims and Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown told earlier how police called her on the first day of the enforcement after a fake complaint had been reported in her name.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland show, Ms Brown said: “I was actually surprised myself on Monday to receive a call from Police Scotland about my complaint. This was a fake complaint that someone had done anonymously, in my name, and gave my office number.

“I think this just shows the publicity and misinformation that’s out there about this act that people are making fake and vexatious complaints.

“In the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of misinformation and hysteria regarding this bill being introduced on Monday.”

Ms Brown insisted the legislation was “to protect those in our society who have been at the harsh edge of hate crime”.

Police Scotland has confirmed there was no criminality associated with JK Rowling’s posts she published on Monday where she misgendered a number of trans figures. The author had challenged police to arrest her if her posts had broken the new law.

Ms Brown said that she understands “the transgender issue has very polarised views”, but stressed the law was needed to “protect communities that are vulnerable”.

She told the show that “to be a crime (it has) to be threatening and abusive”, have “the intent to stir up hatred towards an individual” and “cause this individual to have fear or alarm”, adding “that is a very high threshold for criminality”.

Ms Brown insisted that “you can say something that may be offensive”.

Asked if Police Scotland should log the complaints against the author as a non-crime hate incident, as they have against Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, Ms Brown said: “I couldn’t speculate. It’s an operational matter for Police Scotland.”

She added: “The record of hate crimes or incidents has nothing to do with the legislation that came in on Monday.

“I have faith in Police Scotland that they will be treating everybody the same. I do not believe they would be treating opposition politicians, as suggested, differently to politicians in government or any other individuals that might have been reported.”

The Scottish Sun quoted a police source, claiming that more hate crime complaints have been received by the force about Huma Yousaf than Ms Rowling, while reports suggest Police Scotland has set up a “gold group” of senior officers to deal with the high number of complaints.

Ms Brown claimed that Police Scotland “have said publicly that they are in the process of reviewing it and how they record hate crime incidents”.

But the force has insisted there isn’t an ongoing review into Police Scotland policy about the recording of non-crime hate incidents, although a group is looking at policing guidance that has been updated in England and Wales.

Former Rangers player turned football commentator Ally McCoist has warned he and thousands of other fans could be “committing a breach” of the legislation at this Sunday’s Old Firm derby. Mr McCoist said on TalkSport that he “along with 48,000 will be committing a breach of that hate Bill in the particular Rangers v Celtic game we are all going to”, branding the situation “madness”.

Asked about Mr McCoist’s concerns, Ms Brown said: “I’m not going to comment on individuals’ comments.”

But she stressed behaviour would have to exceed a “very high threshold” for a crime to be committed.