Hate Crime Awareness Week: Shocking data reveals 29% spike in hate crimes recorded by police... in a year

The number of hate crimes recorded by police has increased by a shocking 29% since last year – the largest annual rise since records began.

Shocking data, issued during Hate Crime Awareness Week, showed police recorded 80,393 offences where hate was deemed a motivating factor in 2016/17.

This was compared to 62,518 in 2016/16 – a staggering increase of 17,875 recorded crimes in England and Wales.

Hate crimes are hostile or prejudicial offences targeting a person on account of their race, ethnic origin, nationality or national origins, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability.

Since the government began collecting such data in 2011, records show recorded hate crime has increased, with the sharpest rise evident in the last year.

A Home Office report said: “The increase over the last year is thought to reflect both a genuine rise in hate crime around the time of the EU referendum and following the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack.

“[This is] as well as ongoing improvements in crime reporting by police,” it added.

The report, which covers to England and Wales, noted four spikes in racially or religiously aggravated offences - June 2016, and March, May and June 2017.

These spikes coincided with Britain voting to leave the EU, the Westminster Bridge attack, the Manchester Arena bombing and the attacks at Borough Market and Finsbury Park Mosque.

The data splits hate crime into five categories: offences motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity.

Offences motivated by race were the most common to be reported to police, making up 78% of last year's hate crimes.

The largest increase was in crimes motivated by someone's disability - 3,629 reported offences in 2015/16 rose to 5,558 last year, a rise of 53%.

'No place for hate crime in our society'

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: "There is absolutely no place for hate crime in our society. This Government is taking action to tackle it.

"I am heartened more victims are more confident to come forward and report incidents of hate crime, and police identification and recording of all crime is improving.

"But no one in Britain should have to suffer violent prejudice, and indications that there was a genuine rise in the number of offences immediately following each of this year's terror attacks is undoubtedly concerning."

The new figures come after it was revealed fewer alleged hate criminals were prosecuted last year.

Nearly 14,500 hate crime prosecutions were completed across England and Wales in 2016/17, down 6.2% from the previous year.

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