What does the pledge mean?

Labour’s manifesto pledged to “reverse” the “decision to downgrade the monitoring of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate” which it said had been made under the Conservatives.

We can’t say for certain what this manifesto pledge refers to, as neither the Home Office nor the Labour party have so far answered our questions about it.

But based on what ministers have said in written answers in Parliament, it appears to relate to non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs).

These are incidents or alleged incidents recorded by the police which involve or are alleged to involve hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic—such as race or religion—but which are not a crime.

These arose out of the results of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, which called for a “comprehensive” system to record racist incidents, and are governed by the College of Policing’s guidelines, called Authorised Professional Practice.

Under the College of Policing’s guidance, NCHIs can only be recorded when an incident “disturbs an individual’s, group’s or community’s quality of life or causes them concern”.

These records can either include the personal data of the subject, or not, depending on the circumstances of the incident.

In March 2023, new statutory guidance on recording these incidents was introduced under the Conservative then-home secretary Suella Braverman amid government concern that police were “wrongly getting involved in lawful debate in this country” by recording the personal data of people whose lawfully-held views had caused offence.

This followed a case in the High Court which found insufficient weight had been given to freedom of expression in an incident involving the publication of gender critical posts on X (formerly Twitter).

The new guidance aimed to reduce the number of NCHIs being recorded by ensuring police only did so in cases where it was deemed “absolutely necessary and proportionate and not simply because someone is offended”.

It also introduced an additional test around a subject’s personal data in NCHIs, permitting police forces to record this information in NCHIs only when they appear to “present a real risk of significant harm” to those with protected characteristics, and/or “real risk that a future criminal offence may be committed” against those groups.

It appears therefore as though Labour’s pledge on antisemitic and Islamophobic hate involves reversing the Conservatives’ 2023 change to the guidance on NCHIs. But we don’t know this for certain—and the manifesto did not give further details on what this might mean or how it would be achieved.

What progress has been made?

We are currently rating this pledge as “wait and see”, The government has said it is conducting a review into the guidance on non-crime hate incidents, but no further details have yet been published on how these will affect monitoring of antisemitic or Islamophobic incidents, or how the review may “reverse” changes introduced by the Conservatives.

We have asked the Home Office for further information, and will update this article if we receive a response.

The previous home secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs in July 2025 that a review was underway under the College of Policing, but did not specify what changes might be made to NCHI guidance.

In the same month, the College of Policing published its terms of reference for the review, which is expected to conclude in December 2025.

The review will make recommendations on how to reform NCHI recording, to “monitor and respond to vulnerability and community tension” while embedding free speech and considering the “time and cost of recording and responding to NCHIs”.

Any revision to the statutory code issued in 2023 would then need to be laid by the government before Parliament under the “negative procedure”—meaning it would likely automatically pass into law unless MPs or peers pass a motion to annul it.