Police Scotland could receive nearly 1.4 million complaints during the first year of Humza Yousaf’s ‘confusing’ new Hate Crime Act, it was predicted today.
Last night, former general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation Calum Steele revealed 3,800 complaints had been lodged with the force within 24 hours of the new laws coming into place on Monday.
The Scottish Conservatives – who branded the SNP’s legislation as ‘disastrous’ – have now said that if complaints continue to be made at the same speed over the next 12 months officers 1.38 million crimes could be reported.
Tory MSP Russell Findlay warned that the new laws are ‘already being weaponised on an industrial scale by thin-skinned troublemakers, which is placing the biggest ever burden on Scotland’s police officers’.
He added: ‘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.’
Police Scotland is said to currently be processing around 60 complaints an hour. It comes as the storm over the new laws continues to intensify on both sides of the debate.
The SNP’s minister for victims and community Siobhian Brown, warned of ‘hysteria’ gripping Scots this morning after she revealed that a member of the public had made a fake complaint in her name.
The SNP MSP said that there was ‘misinformation’ about the new act that was leading people to make a series of ‘fake and vexatious complaints’.
‘I think also, in the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of misinformation and hysteria regarding this bill being introduced,’ she told BBC Radio Scotland.
‘I was surprised myself on Monday to receive a call from Police Scotland about my complaint – this was a fake complaint someone had done anonymously in my name, and gave my office number,’ she added.
Meanwhile, it has been claimed that Yousaf has received more complaints under Scotland’s new hate crime bill than JK Rowling.