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 the external consultation group (ECG) on hate crime together with community organizations, victim advocacy groups, academics with relevant expertise and others. ECG members scrutinize CPS policies and practices, and inform about necessary changes and improvements.   

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. 

Hate crime data collection in the United Kingdom
Support for hate crime victims in the United Kingdom
Hate crime capacity building in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom's hate crime legislation
Download the 2015 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

About 2015 Data

    Police data represent hate crimes recorded in England and Wales only. The total numbers of police recorded hate crimes by bias motivation presented below are higher than this overall number due to cases involving more than one bias.
    Prosecution data breakdown is as follows: 314 in Northern Ireland, 5,544 in Scotland and 15,442 in England and Wales.
    Data on sentencing do not include Scotland, with Northern Ireland reporting 258 and England and wales 12,845 convictions.
    All data cover period from April 2015 to March 2016.

Hate crime recorded by police

National developments

A new guidance on hate crime was published by the College of Policing, which aims at helping police officers reduce the under-reporting of hate crimes. The guidance further recognized emerging challenges such as internet-based offences and improving police response to hate crime against people with disabilities.

The Welsh Assembly published its hate crime strategy, Tackling hate crimes and incidents: a framework for action, focusing on three objectives: prevention, supporting victims and improving multi-agency response.

The Office of the Mayor of London published a hate crime strategy for London. The strategy identifies a number of objectives for the period from 2014 to 2017, including disseminating hate crime resources for educational institutions; developing an awareness campaign in London; developing a smartphone app for reporting incidents; developing a third party telephone reporting mechanism across London to supplement already existing local mechanisms; co-operating with the Ministry of Justice to develop resources within the True Vision hate crime reporting information website that are specific to London; developing with the Metropolitan Police Service a map of London’s hate crime hotspots; improving the use of enhanced sentencing by judges in “hostility-based offences” by urging the Home Secretary to introduce new sentencing guidelines for hate crimes and the recording of enhanced sentences on the Police National Computer.  

KEY OBSERVATION

ODIHR observes that the United Kingdom has met most OSCE commitments on hate crime data collection and reporting. 

INCIDENTS REPORTED BY CIVIL SOCIETY

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

In its "Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC) recommended that the existing legislation and policy to counter hate crimes be effectively implemented, reporting improved, and that cases should be thoroughly investigated, with perpetrators prosecuted and appropriately sentenced.

In its fifth report on the United Kingdom, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) recommended that data be gathered where enhanced sentencing was applied; and to monitor cases where bias aggravation was invoked and then withdrawn during the plea bargain.