England-Wales hate crime at highest level on record

THE number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales has hit the highest level on record, with a 12% rise in racially motivated incidents, official figures show.

There were 124,091 hate crimes recorded in the year to March 2021, according to Home Office statistics.

This comprises 92,052 race-hate crimes, 6,377 religious hate crimes, 18,596 sexual-orientation hate crimes, 9,943 disability hate crimes and 2,799 transgender hate crimes.

Numbers have risen each year since records began in 2011-12.

The Home Office said the rises have been driven by improvements in recording, growing awareness and a better identification of what constitutes a hate crime.

Excluding the 2021 figures from Greater Manchester Police, which was unable to provide data for the year to March 2020 as a comparison, there were 114,958 hate crimes recorded in the year to March 2021 – an annual rise of 9%.

Around three-quarters of these crimes – 85,268 offences – were racially motivated, an annual rise of 12% or more than 9,000 more incidents.

Disability-related hate crimes rose by 9%, sexual orientation-related hate crimes by 7%, while transgender identity-related hate crimes were up 3%.

The Home Office said those last three percentage changes were lower than seen in recent years.

Hate crimes linked to religion were down 18% compared to the previous year – the second annual fall in a row.

More than half (52%) of the crimes recorded were for public order offences.

The Home Office said there was an increase in public order hate crimes during the summer of 2020 following the Black Lives Matter protests and farright counter-protests.

Diana Fawcett, chief executive at independent charity Victim Support, said: “At Victim Support, we’ve also seen a rise in the number of people coming to us for support as a result of hate crime and it’s incredibly concerning to see a significant increase across the country.”