Nearly 7,800 hate crime complaints were made to Police Scotland in the week Humza Yousaf's new law...

Police Scotland received nearly 7,800 reports of hate crime under Scotland's new law in the first week of operation - with three per cent of the reports resulting in a recorded offence, the force has said.

However, police chiefs insist that the impact of the law on frontline policing and its ability to respond to calls regarding other crimes has been 'minimal'. The number of reports then drops off substantially: on April 2, 1,359 reports were made - followed by 586, 961, 304, 180 and 343 on April 3 through to April 7.

A breakdown of the alleged aggravating factors in recorded hate crimes reveals that 120 crimes were alleged to stir up hate based on age, while another 42 were said to target people based on their sexual orientation. Another 30 of the 7,757 reports made to police resulted in the recording of an NCHI - meaning they were not considered to meet the criminal threshold, but assessed as running the risk of stirring up hate in communities.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'This data highlights the substantial increase in the number of online hate reports being received since 1 April. Among the high-profile targets of many complaints were Mr Yousaf, a video of whom was circulated by far-right accounts on social media. JK Rowling was also reported for a series of tweets she made targeting high-profile trans women, including convicted criminals, whom she labelled 'men'. She challenged Police Scotland to arrest her in the series of posts on April 1.

Building on existing race hate crime laws, the new legislation also outlaws 'stirring up' hatred against protected characteristics such as age, disability, religion, transgender identity and those who are intersex. Responding to Rowling's post, defining a woman as 'a human being...that produces large gametes', Murray said: 'Preach'

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