Hate crime Scotland: SNP ministers spent £400k on public information campaign

Police Scotland began enforcing the Hate Crime Act from the start of the month, with figures released on Wednesday showing 7,152 hate crime reports were made in the first week. Statistics show that 240 hate crimes were recorded in the same timeframe while police also dealt with 430 incidents where a hate crime tag was added.

Concerns have been raised the volume of complaints received by police could overwhelm officers amid a commitment to investigate every report. The force has also come under fire for its controversial recording of non-crime hate incidents, while the Scottish Police Federation has raised issues around training for officers ahead of the launch, which still has not been completed by all officers.

It has now been reported almost £400,000 was tallied up on the ‘Hate Hurts’ promotional campaign, including on billboards, social media and television adverts. The campaign featured the slogan “if you witness a hate crime, report it”.

The accompanying video advert shows an individual looking at messages on a phone, alongside the words: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words make me feel hated just for being me." The campaign was run in the 20 days leading up to the Hate Crime Act going live on April 1.

Details obtained through a Freedom of Information request showed last month's 'Hate Hurts' campaign cost £389,689.50.

Scottish Conservative deputy justice spokesperson Sharon Dowey said: “The huge sum of public money lavished by the SNP on promoting Humza Yousaf’s shambolic hate crime law will rightly stick in the craw of Scotland’s police officers.

“Police Scotland could desperately use that £400,000 as they plough through the mountain of extra work generated by SNP ministers encouraging the public to report incidents – and which we’re told is leading to a huge overtime bill.

“It also makes a mockery of SNP ministers’ apparent shock at the number of vexatious complaints being made to police. They ran a nationwide publicity drive, at taxpayers’ expense, urging people to report hate incidents to the police, and now have the cheek to wring their hands at the volume of them.

“The SNP’s flawed law, which was inexplicably supported by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, is unravelling just as legal experts and the Scottish Conservatives predicted. It must be ditched now.”

Community safety minister Siobhian Brown launched the campaign last month.

Speaking at the time, she said: "We must do all we can to give victims and witnesses the confidence to report instances of hate crime, which is why we have launched a new campaign 'Hate Hurts'. The campaign is informed by lived experience and explains what a hate crime is, the impact it has on victims and how to report it."