Surge in race hate reports – but police charge just one in six

RECORD numbers of hate crimes were reported to police last year – but only one in six was considered serious enough for a suspect to be charged.

Home Office figures revealed there were 80,393 offences in England and Wales in 2016/17 compared with 62,518 the year before – a jump of 29 per cent.

The overwhelming majority – 78 per cent – were classed as race hate crimes, with others targeting people because of their religion, disability or sexual orientation. But only 13,068 cases – 16 per cent – were passed by police to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Hate crime is defined as hostility towards someone based on a personal characteristic. But it will raise questions about whether tens of thousands of reports are little more than grievances that would never meet the threshold of criminality.

Critics have also claimed that police are squandering resources by focusing on hate crimes because of political correctness at the expense of other offences.

Four spikes in racially or religiously aggravated offences were highlighted in the report: in June

‘A rise in offences following terror attacks’

2016 around the Brexit vote; in March when Islamic extremist Khalid Masood killed five people in Westminster; in May after the Manchester Arena bombing killed 22; and in June when three Islamic State-inspired terrorists struck at Borough Market. In 28 per cent of cases the victim did not support further action and there were difficulties gathering evidence in another 15 per cent. No suspect was identified in a third of incidents – for instance where graffiti was scrawled on mosques or synagogues.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: ‘ No one should have to suffer violent prejudice, and indications that there was a genuine rise in the number of offences following each of this year’s terror attacks is undoubtedly concerning.’

Tim Loughton, a Tory member of the Commons home affairs committee, said: ‘While the increase in reported hate crime is concerning we have to make sure these are genuine offences, not just a knee-jerk reaction to events. If the police are to make prosecutions stick we must trust them to distinguish between serious instances rather than personal grievances.’