Humza Yousaf urged to ditch hate crime legal guidelines as police obtain 7,000 complaints | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Humza Yousaf has been urged to desert “disastrous” new hate crime legal guidelines in Scotland after new figures confirmed a deluge of complaints within the first week.

Some 7,152 studies had been made on-line to Police Scotland following the controversial laws taking impact on April 1.

But simply 240 had been recorded as hate crimes – 3.3% of all studies – with an extra 30 logged as non-crime hate incidents, which means they didn’t meet the edge for a prison offence.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice spokesperson Sharon Dowey stated: “These figures highlight the huge toll Humza Yousaf’s shambolic hate crime law is already having on Scotland’s overstretched police force.

“It beggars belief that the SNP have introduced this when one in five officers still haven’t received the paltry two-hour training that’s supposed to equip them to enforce the new law.

“On top of the deluge of complaints that Police Scotland are having to field every day, the fact that 240 in a week were deemed to have been crimes just adds to the intolerable strain on officers who have already been forced to not investigate certain other crimes due to SNP cuts.

“The Scottish Police Federation have warned that this is unsustainable, so Humza Yousaf should admit he’s got it badly wrong and bin this disastrous law.”

Nearly half of all of the complaints made on-line had been made on the primary day, the figures confirmed, earlier than the variety of studies slowed later within the week.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act got here underneath intense criticism when it got here into impact final week, together with from Harry Potter writer JK Rowling.

While stirring up racial hatred was already a criminal offense, the brand new legal guidelines prolonged this safety to different folks on the grounds of age, incapacity, faith, sexual orientation and transgender identification.

Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance stated the 240 hate crimes recorded have proven why the laws is “required”.

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

“This important demand continues to be managed inside our contact centres and, to date, the influence on frontline policing, our means to reply calls and reply to those that want our assist in communities throughout 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”.