The disaggregated data below are only for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland. The police and several civil society organizations involved in monitoring hate incidents (including the Community Security Trust, Galop and Tell MAMA) exchange data on a regular basis about recorded incidents. This data sharing is governed by Information Sharing Agreements signed by the police and each of the civil society organizations. As a result, some of the offences presented below (particularly data on anti-Semitic hate crime and hate crime motivated by intolerance against Muslims) are also included in reporting by the relevant civil society organizations elsewhere on this page.
In December 2021, the Law Commission published its final recommendations on improving hate crime legislation, applicable for England and Wales, following a wide-ranging review and public consultation conducted in 2019 and 2021.
In 2021, the Police Service of Northern Ireland held a number of awareness-raising activities throughout the year on what constitutes a hate crime, how to report it and support available through the Advocacy Service. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2021, social media was widely used for this purpose.
The Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland provided a detailed consultation response as part of Judge Marrinan's Review of Hate Crime Legislation. The Service has also provided further responses in relation to proposed legislative changes, and continues to work closely with the Department of Justice for Northern Ireland and other stakeholders on policy development around new hate crime provisions.
In February 2021, the Scottish Government published its research report, "A Study into the Characteristics of Police Recorded Hate Crime in Scotland”, which presents updated statistics on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland from 2014 to 2020. The study also includes the nature of hate crimes recorded by police in 2018 and 2019, including the characteristics of both victims and perpetrators.
The report showed that since reporting on 2014-15, the number of hate crimes recorded has fluctuated between 6,300 and 7,000 crimes.
In March 2021, the Scottish Parliament passed the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, which extends the list of protected characteristics to include "age" and allows a further extension to include "sex", among other changes.
Hate crimes recorded in this category include 27,958 offences recorded England and Wales and 931 offences recorded in Northern Ireland. The records can include offences targeting any group defined by "race", colour, nationality or ethnic or national origin, including countries within the UK, and "Gypsy or Irish Travellers". It also includes persons targeted because they are an asylum seeker or refugee.
The figures presented here were recorded by the police in England and Wales.
The figures presented here were recorded by the police in England and Wales.
The figures presented here were recorded by the police in England and Wales.
A total of 2,471 anti-religious hate crimes were recorded in England and Wales and 54 such offences recorded in Northern Ireland. For England and Wales, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and anti-Christian hate crimes are monitored as sub-categories of anti-religious hate crime and are presented separately. However, records for Northern Ireland do not monitor the mentioned sub-categories separately, and the relevant records are thus presented here. This category also includes offences for which more than one perceived religion was targeted.
Of this number, police in England and Wales recorded 7,009 hate crimes motivated by bias based on sexual orientation and 1,263 motivated by transphobic bias; the police of Northern Ireland recorded 336 hate crimes motivated by bias based on sexual orientation and 42 motivated by transphobic bias. Hate crimes based on bias against gender identity are classified as transgender hate crimes in England and Wales.
The number provided here includes 3,760 disability hate crimes recorded in England and Wales and 93 such hate crimes recorded in Northern Ireland.
Records under this category were collected by the police in Northern Ireland and relate to "sectarian hate crime". In Northern Ireland, "sectarian hate crime" is defined as "bigoted dislike or hatred of members of a different religious or political group. It is broadly accepted that within the Northern Ireland context an individual or group must be perceived to be Catholic or Protestant, Nationalist or Unionist, or Loyalist or Republican. However, sectarianism can also relate to other religious denominations, for example, Sunni and Shi’ite in Islam."
The Council of Europe European Commissioner for Human Rights published relevant recommendations in its "Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Dunja Mijatović Report Following her Visit to the United Kingdom from 27 June to 1 July 2022".
ODIHR recognizes the United Kingdom's efforts to regularly report hate crime data to ODIHR. However, it observes that the United Kingdom would benefit from raising awareness among and building the capacity of criminal justice officials to address hate crime, particularly with regard to some of the more isolated victim groups.
ODIHR recalls that in Ministerial Council Decision 9/09, OSCE participating States committed to introducing or further developing professional training and capacity-building activities for law enforcement, prosecution and judicial officials dealing with hate crimes. ODIHR stands ready to support the United Kingdom in meeting the relevant commitments through its comprehensive resources and tailored capacity-building assistance for police, prosecutors, and the judiciary.
In addition to incidents summarized below, this graph includes 386 cases of anti-Semitic incidents reported by the Community Security Trust.