Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government has taken to reduce hate crime since the EU referendum.

Sarah Newton

We have been working closely with the police at national and regional levels to monitor hate crime since the EU Referendum and to ensure that local forces have the necessary assistance and guidance to respond.

Police forces are responding robustly to recent incidents, and victims can be reassured that their concerns about hate crime will be taken seriously by the police and courts.

On 26 July we published a comprehensive new cross-Government Hate Crime Action plan to drive forward action against hate crime. This includes education programmes to prevent hate incidents and measures to improve the police response and recording of hate crime. It also includes £2.4million for security at places of worship which are vulnerable to hate crime and £300,000 funding for community groups to tackle hate crime at local level.

Ministers and officials have also met Ambassadors and High Commissioners from all EU states and offered reassurance and a single point of contact for them to raise concerns over hate crime on behalf of their citizens.