United Kingdom

The United Kingdom regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR.

Authorities collaborate closely with civil society, including through Information Sharing Agreements concluded between the police and the Community Security Trust (CST), Galop and Tell MAMA, which enable the exchange of recorded data about incidents. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) regularly convenes an external consultation group (ECG) on hate crime, whose members include community organizations, victim advocacy groups, academics with relevant expertise and others. ECG members scrutinize CPS policies and practices, and suggest where improvements can be made.

In Northern Ireland, the Department of Justice chairs a multi-agency Hate Crime Delivery Group (HCDG) to identify strategic, cross-governmental priorities and develop new approaches to dealing with hate crime. The group meets quarterly and includes representatives of government departments, criminal justice agencies and victim groups. The Department of Justice and Northern Ireland Policing Board jointly fund Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs) to engage and consult with the local community, and work with local partners to identify and prioritize local community safety and policing issues and develop initiatives and projects to address these.

In Scotland, there is the Hate Crime Strategic Partnership Group (SPG), which brings together criminal justice agencies and civil society organizations with hate crime expertise. The SPG helped ensure a multi-agency strategic approach was taken to the develop the Hate Crime Strategy for Scotland. The Hate Crime and Public Order Act (Scotland) Act 2021 became an Act of Parliament on 23 April 2021. The Act was commenced on 1 April 2024.

The UK's College of Policing has developed guidelines for police on responding to hate crime, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has issued relevant guidance for prosecutors and published public policy statements on particular hate crime strands.

Police and prosecution data, which cover the reporting period from April to March of the following year, are regularly published by the relevant criminal justice agencies of England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

SELECT YEAR

Download the 2010 hate crime report for United Kingdom

OFFICIAL DATA REPORTED BY STATES

Year	Hate crimes recorded by police	Prosecuted	Sentenced
2023	148,735	Not available	Not available
2022	147,447	296 (NI)	1,107
2021	158,018	5,984	932
2020	125,848	16,824	9,510
2019	106,672	14,058	9,340
2018	111,076	18,055	10,817
2017	95,552	14,535	11,987
2016	80,763	20,321	Not available
2015	62518	21300	13103
2014	52853	4872	549
2013	47986	19689	12353
2012	47676	19205	10794
2011	50688	19802	12651
2010	53946	19342	11405
2009	58692	13030	10690

Download official data

National developments

The True Vision website, a joint initiative between the Police and the Cross Government Hate Crime Programme, was launched in December 2010. The purpose of the website is to publish hate crime data and to enable victims and third party organizations to report hate crimes online directly to the relevant police agency. The online reporting facility received over 600 reports of hate crimes in the first nine months.

The Hate Crime Strategy Board, a cross-government initiative comprised of senior representatives and led by the Ministry of Justice, was established to improve criminal justice service to victims. In 2010, the Board produced the Hate Crime Diagnostic Toolkit, which supports local police and prosecutors in identifying and implementing improvements in the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.

The Victim’s Fund, which is sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, was allocated over two million pounds to be used for a broad range of hate crime initiatives delivered by civil society groups offering direct support to victims of crime.

In Northern Ireland, the Criminal Justice Board, which is made up of senior representatives of the seven main statutory criminal-justice agencies in Northern Ireland, reached consensus on a shared definition of “hate crime”.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia was established in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to investigate the forms, manifestations and extent of prejudice and discrimination against Muslims; review the effectiveness of all legislation, with a view to improving the rate of success in the prosecution of hate crimes; review existing mechanisms for the recording of anti-Muslim hate crimes; and investigate and review the role of the media in fostering mutual respect and tolerance and guarding against misrepresentations of Islam and intolerance towards Muslims.

The findings of a 2009 United Kingdom Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report on disabled people’s experiences of targeted violence and hate crime, as well as concern about public authorities’ responses to a number of high profile and serious offences committed against disabled people, led to an inquiry, carried out in 2010, into what actions public authorities are taking to discharge their legal duty to eliminate disability-related harassment and its causes. The inquiry involved substantial public consultation and evidence sessions with senior members of the criminal justice system, including the Director of Public Prosecutions.

KEY OBSERVATION

No information is available.

Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See

Reports

Anti-Semitic hate crime

The Community Security Trust reported 114 physical assaults, 83 cases of damage to or desecration of Jewish property (including cemeteries, schools, the buildings of Jewish organizations and private homes) and 27 threats. The Stephen Roth Institute reported 144 hate incidents.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

Human Rights First reported three physical assaults and two arson attacks motivated by anti-Muslim bias. The National Association of Muslim Police reported 15 cases of arson and damage to property targeting mosques, and five cases of graffiti in Muslim cemeteries. The Institute of Race Relations reported 12 physical assaults and 20 hate incidents involving graffiti and damage to property, eight of which targeted mosques. The Muslim Council of Britain reported two physical assaults, two arson attacks on mosques and eight cases of damage to property (four targeting mosques, three targeting Muslim cemeteries, and one as part of a series of attacks on the home of a Muslim family). ENGAGE reported six physical assaults, one of which involved serious bodily injury, two arson attacks on mosques, five cases of damage to mosques, the desecration of a cemetery, one case of graffiti and four cases in which pigs’ heads were left outside mosques.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The Institute of Race Relations reported one physical assault causing serious bodily injury, and one other physical assault against an asylum seeker.

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Anti-Muslim hate crime

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) issued a report examining the discrimination and violence experienced by Muslim and non-Muslim youths in the United Kingdom. The report found that victims of violence and discrimination often suffered from feelings of social marginalization.