PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Religious Hatred (22 October 2014)

The UK Government takes all forms of hate crime very seriously. We deplore all religious and racially-motivated attacks.

Between 2012-13 and 2013-14 recorded race hate crime increased by 4% (an increase of 1,595 offences), and religious hate crime by 45% (an increase of 700 offences). The increase in recorded hate crime shows that more victims are coming forward and that the police are improving the way they identify hate crimes, and we welcome this.

While religious hate crime data is not broken down by type, monthly police recorded crime data for racially or religiously aggravated offences show an increase following the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013.

The Community Safety Trust monitors levels of antisemitism. Their most recent report, published at the end of July covering the period of January to June 2014, highlights that there has been a 36% increase in the number of antisemitic incidents recorded compared to the same period in 2013 (304 incidents in 2014, compared to 223 in 2013).

When these events occur it is vital that the police take action to engage effectively with communities. Police forces in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland have recently been issued with new guidance for dealing with hate crimes, which includes advice on dealing with incidents and how to monitor and deal with community tensions.

We have established working groups to tackle antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred which bring together community representatives and experts from across government to help explore issues affecting these communities.

Our cross-government action plan brings together the work of a wide range of departments and agencies under three core principles: to prevent hate crimes happening in the first place; to increase reporting and victims’ access to support; and to improve the operational response to hate crimes.