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 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

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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 organizations and the Holy See

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Reports

Anti-Semitic hate crime

The Community Security Trust (CST) and the Kantor Centre reported 85 physical assaults, four of which caused serious injuries; and 65 incidents of damage to property, including 24 incidents that targeted personal property, six incidents targeting synagogues, one against a cemetery and five that involved the hacking of websites. The CST also reported 85 incidents of vandalism and graffiti on non-Jewish property.

Anti-LGBTI hate crime

Galop reported a physical assault carried out by a group in which a gay man was stabbed and suffered serious injuries; one robbery targeting a gay man, in which a baseball bat and knife were used by a group; and four incidents of threats, with victims including a transgender woman and a man with intellectual disability.

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

MEND reported 32 physical assaults, three of which were carried out by groups and which caused serious injuries, also including three assaults involving the use of weapons. Two of the assaults involved robbery and three also involved damage to property. These 32 physical assaults targeted four women and 11 assaults targeted taxi drivers. The victims were Asian, Indian, Egyptian, Algerian, Sudanese, Somali, Iranian, Turkish and Iraqi-Kurd.

MEND also reported one attempted physical assault, one attempted robbery, ten incidents of threats, one arson attack, seven incidents of damage to property and two incidents of graffiti.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

MEND and Tell MAMA reported the attempted murder of a woman wearing a headscarf, who was pushed in front of an incoming train in a subway station; ten physical assaults, including one which involved the use of an air-rifle and three targeting women; one threat; one arson attack against a mosque; the bombing of a Muslim cultural centre; one attempted arson attack; two incidents of damage to mosques; nine incidents of vandalism ,including eight with graffiti; and one incident of the desecration of Muslim graves.

Hate crime against Christians and members of other religions

The Observatory of Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDC) reported one physical assault and one incident of damage to a church

Disability hate crime

Tell MAMA reported one physical assault in which a young boy with disabilities was assaulted on a bus, and one threat against a Turkish man that involved both anti-disability and anti-Muslim verbal abuse.

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.