United Kingdom
The United Kingdom regularly reports hate crime data to ODIHR. The United Kingdom's hate crime laws are a combination of general penalty enhancement provisions and substantive offences. In England and Wales, hate crime data are collected and published by the Home Office, based on police data submissions. Prosecution data is collected and published by the Crown Prosecution Service. The Crime Survey of England and Wales includes regular victimization surveys to measure unreported hate crimes. In Northern Ireland, hate crime data are collected by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland. In Scotland, data are collected by the Procurator Fiscal and Police Scotland. Police and prosecution data, which cover the reporting period from April to March of the following year, are regularly published.
OFFICIAL DATA
Year | Hate crimes recorded by police | Prosecuted | Sentenced |
---|---|---|---|
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 |
About 2013 Data
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Police data include recorded hate crimes in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, but do not include figures for Scotland. The number of cases prosecuted is as follows: 14074 for England and Wales, 566 in Northern Ireland and 5049 in Scotland. Data on sentencing do not include Scotland. All data cover period from April 2013 to March 2014.
Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See
INTERNATIONAL REPORTS
Racist and xenophobic hate crime
In its mission report on the United Kingdom, the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent noted concerns about discrimination in various aspects of policing and the justice system in the country. The Working Group recommended that the legal framework for stop and search be amended to include requirements for reasonable suspicion for all police stops; that statistics anonymously identifying the ethnicity of persons subject to stop and search be collected and publicly reported; and that steps be taken towards increasing the number of people of African descent working in the law-enforcement and justice systems.
Anti-Semitic hate crime
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published findings from a survey on experiences and perceptions of anti-Semitism conducted in Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The survey showed that many respondents have been victims of anti-Semitic violence and harassment, and feared becoming hate crime victims in the future. The survey also mapped the extent of unreported anti-Semitic hate crime. FRA recommended that EU Member States consider taking a number of steps to improve the reporting, recording, investigating and prosecuting of hate crimes.
KEY OBSERVATION
ODIHR observes that the United Kingdom has met OSCE commitments on hate crime data collection and reporting. ODIHR further observes that data on certain OSCE-mandated bias motivations have not been reported and that the United Kingdom did not report prosecution data from 2012.