A report published by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) this week shows a positive increase in the number of prosecutions for hate crime during 2015-16. The number of prosecutions following hate crimes against disabled people saw a particularly high increase of 41%.

Other key statistics from the national report are:

• In 2015/16 the CPS completed 15,442 hate crime prosecutions, the highest number achieved to date
• 13,032 of the prosecutions were for racially and religiously aggravated hate crime, an increase of 1.9% on the previous year
• 1,469 of the prosecutions were for homophobic and transphobic crime, an increase of 15% on the previous year
• 941 of the prosecutions were for disability hate crime, an increase of 41.3% on the previous year when it completed 666 cases
• The conviction rate across all strands of hate crime increased slightly from 82.9% in 2014/15 to 83.2% in 2015/16.

Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions has said “a hate crime is exactly that – a crime – and will not be ignored” before adding that roughly 4/5 reported hate crimes end in a conviction and in the last year alone, almost 1000 people have been jailed for committing hate crimes.

Hate crime is defined as “any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race or perceived race; religion or perceived religion; sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation; disability or perceived disability and any crime motivated by a hostility or prejudice against a person who is transgender or perceived to be transgender.”

Hate crime is traditionally under-reported and therefore an increase in reported hate crime and subsequent prosecutions is a positive development.

Speaking on the subject of hate crime only last week, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Phillip Seccombe said he “would urge anyone who feels as though they have been a victim of hate crime or has witnessed an incident taking place to come forward and report it so that action can be taken”.

Report Hate Crime

There are many methods of reporting hate crime, all of which are in confidence:

• Report online to True Vision
• In an emergency call 999
• For non-emergencies call 101
• Call in at a police station or stop police officers in the street
• Contact Victim Support on 0300 303 1977
• Contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

All reports of hate crime will receive a police response.

For more information please visit www.safeinwarwickshire.com/hatecrime