Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many hate crimes were committed against disabled people in each of the last five years.
Sarah Newton
The Home Office has collected disability hate crime data from the police since 2011/12.
In 2011/12, the police recorded 1,748 disability hate crime offences, 1,911 in 2012/13, 2,006 in 2013/14 and 2,508 in 2014/15.
Further information on hate crime can be found in Hate Crimes, England and Wales, 2014/15, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2014-to-2015
Data for 2015/16 are due to be published in October 2016.
As stated by the Office for National Statistics, action taken by police forces to improve their compliance with the National Crime Recording Standard has led to improved recording of crime over the last year, especially for violence against the person offences. Together with a greater awareness of disability hate crime, and improved willingness of victims to come forward, this is likely to be a factor in the increase in disability hate crimes recorded by the police.
This Government is committed to tackling hate crime. The UK has one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world to tackle hate crime. We are working across Government with police, (including National Community Tensions Team), the Crown Prosecution Service and community partners to send out a clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated and we will vigorously pursue and prosecute those who commit these crimes.
