Racial and religious hate crimes soar by a third in a year amid coronavirus lockdown and Black Lives Matter tensions
- Race hate crimes accounted for 72 per cent of hate offences in 2019 to 2020
- Number of race hate crimes in June 2020 34 per cent higher than previous year
- Provisional findings from Home Office said protests and coronavirus to blame
The number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales has hit its highest ever level, with racially-motivated offences rising by a third year-on-year.
A report published by the Home Office on hate crime trends during the coronavirus pandemic warned that rises in racially or religiously aggravated hate crime in June and July were a third higher than the previous year.
The number of racially or religiously aggravated offences in June 2020 was 34 per cent higher than in June 2019.
Provisional findings said this is ‘likely to be related to the Black Lives Matter protests and far-right groups’ counter-protests in England and Wales following the death of George Floyd on the 25 May in the United States of America’.
Anti-Semitic graffiti was scrawled across a synagogue, shops and cafes in London’s Hampstead and Belsize Park, December 2019
According to Home Office data, race hate crimes accounted for around 72 per cent of hate offences, with 76,070 race or religion related hate crimes in 2020 – an increase of more than 4,000 in a year, or six per cent.
Official figures show 105,090 hate crimes were recorded in 2019 to 2020, up eight per cent from the same period last year and the highest number since records began in 2011 to 2012 when the number of reports was 32,969.
It came as the charity Victim Support reported a 62 per cent increase in the number of people being referred for help over the summer.
Number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police, January to July 2019 and 2020. Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office
Indexed trends showing racially or religiously aggravated offences from April 2015 to July 2020 against non-aggravated equivalent offences from the same period
The charity said intimidating behaviour from neighbours had fuelled the ‘extremely concerning’ rise in the number of hate crime victims needing support between July and August.
According to Home Office figures, hate crime motivated by sexual orientation rose by 19 per cent to 15,835 in 2019 to 2020, from 13,314 a year earlier.
Transgender identity hate crime went up 16 per cent in the same period, from 2,183 to 2,540, reaching its highest level since records began in 2011 to 2012 (296).
Race hate crimes accounted for around three-quarters, 72 per cent, of hate crimes
Disability hate crime increased by 9 per cent from 7,786 to 8,469, also a record high compared to 1,676 in 2011 to 2012.
But the report added: ‘These percentage increases are smaller than seen in recent years.’
It put the rise in hate crime over the last five years down to ‘improvements in crime recording by the police’ but added that there had been spikes in reports following events like the EU Referendum in 2016 and the 2017 terror attacks.
The figures do not include the number of reports made to Greater Manchester Police because the force is still unable to supply data to the Home Office due to a computer glitch when installing new software last year.