Police Scotland has listed a sex shop in Glasgow, a mushroom farm in North Berwick and a demolished office block in West Dunbartonshire as "third party reporting centres" for Scotland's new hate crime laws.
The Scottish Conservatives have said that "serious questions" need to be asked about the locations.
READ MORE: Scottish Government launches 'what is a hate crime' campaign
The controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act is due to take effect from April 1, more than three years after its difficult journey through Holyrood.
While it consolidated some existing hate crime laws, it created a new offence of stirring up hatred against protected characteristics, including age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity.
Earlier this week, the Scottish Government launched a public awareness campaign highlighting the new law and to “encourage those who have witnessed or experienced a hate crime to report it.”
One way to report a hate crime is through a third party reporting centre.
A list of these centres on Police Scotland’s website includes Luke and Jacks, a shop in Glasgow which describes itself as "Passionate Purveyors of Pleasure Products."
Other centres include Monaghan Mushrooms in North Berwick, and Farne Salmon & Trout in Duns, which is one of the largest smoked salmon facilities in Europe.
The list also includes West Dunbartonshire Council’s Equality and Diversity department. However it gives the address as the Council Offices in Garshake Road, Dumbarton. They were demolished in 2019.
READ MORE: Does Scottish Government's campaign explain what a hate crime is?
Scottish Tory MSP Annie Wells said: “Serious questions must be asked as to who thought a sex shop was an appropriate setting to report a hate crime.
“The SNP’s act is flawed enough without asking people to relay their experiences in this sort of outlet in the heart of the city centre.
“Glaswegians will rightly be wondering what the thinking behind this decision. Police Scotland should drop this shop from their reporting centres as a matter of urgency.”
Calum Steele, the former general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation said he was concerned about what the third party centres might do the reliability of crime data.
“With literally hundreds of third party reporting vehicles available - inevitably each one with their own interpretive vagaries - that means data confidence will be nigh on impossible to be derived,” he wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.
He added: “I suspect that within a very short period of time we will have ‘data’ suggesting Scotland to be one of the most ‘hateful’ counties on earth. This Jackanory data will be used to justify an endless drive to deliver a Pygmalion utopia.”
Police Scotland has already said they will fully investigate each complaint and keep a record of “hate incidents” against people even if they not meet the criminal threshold.
Guidelines mean that even if officers do not believe a crime has been committed when “the victim perceives it to be a hate crime, the circumstances will be recorded as a hate incident (non- crime incident)”.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Police Scotland has used Hate Crime Third Party Reporting Centres for a number of years.
“In some cases, victims and witnesses of a hate crime may not feel comfortable approaching the police directly. Third Party Reporting Centres provide them with a safe space to make a report, and we constantly review these alongside the Scottish Government.
“Any business or organisation can volunteer to be a Third Party Reporting Centre, and they reflect the diverse nature of our local communities. Staff are trained to ensure they can assist victims or witnesses.
“Hate crime and discrimination of any kind is deplorable and entirely unacceptable and we will investigate every report.”
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