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 2012 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 2012 Data

Police data include recorded hate crimes in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and do not include figures for Scotland. Prosecution data breakdown is as follows: 13,070 England and Wales, 555 in Northern Ireland and 5,580 in Scotland. Data on sentencing do not include Scotland and Northern Ireland. prosecution and sentencing data were reported in 2015 only. All data cover period from April 2012 to March 2013.

Download official data

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.

Incidents reported by civil society, international organizations and the Holy See

Developments

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The Professional Footballers’ Association outlined a six-point plan to tackle racism in football, making specific mention of tackling Islamophobia.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

The Professional Footballers’ Association outlined a six-point plan to tackle racism in football, making specific mention of tackling Islamophobia.

Reports

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians reported one case of threats against a Church of England Bishop of African descent.

ENGAGE reported ten physical assaults, two resulting in serious injury and two by a group. The victims were mainly men of South Asian background and one girl. ENGAGE reported a further two cases of damage to property, one against a Bangladeshi restaurant and the other against a family of Pakistani background, involving throwing objects at their house.

Faith Matters reported two cases of threats.

Anti-Semitic hate crime

The Community Security Trust (CST) reported 69 physical assaults, including four resulting in serious injury, one of which was against a boy, one involving a knife and one carried out by a group. Many of the victims were, due to their religious clothing, visibly identifiable as Jewish; the majority were men, while children were the victims in 15 cases. The CST reported a further 39 cases of threats and 53 incidents of damage to or desecration of Jewish property, including 43 targeting synagogues.

Anti-Muslim hate crime

Faith Matters reported one robbery; one case of harassment and threats; three physical assaults, including one involving pulling a woman’s headscarf and one involving threats to kill; one case of vandalism and graffiti on an Islamic centre, on four separate occasions over a period of three weeks; and one incident where a pig’s head was left outside a mosque.

ENGAGE reported six physical assaults, including one resulting in serious injury and two involving pulling the victim’s headscarf; two cases of threats, including one threat to kill and one threat to burn down a café; two arson attacks against mosques; two cases of damage to property, including throwing bricks at an Islamic centre and breaking the windows of a mosque; four cases of graffiti on a mosque; one case of leaving a pig’s head outside a mosque; and one case of leaving a cross wrapped in ham outside a Muslim family’s house.

Hate crime against Christians and members of other religions

The Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians reported one case of damage to church property.

Anti-LGBTI hate crime

ILGA-Europe reported one case of threats and two cases of physical assault, one being an attack against a gay man by a group in Worcester and the other a serious assault against a transgender woman who was knocked unconscious.

INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Racist and xenophobic hate crime

The UN Human Rights Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, encouraged the United Kingdom to continue work monitoring hate crime, investigating and sanctioning such crimes, working with affected communities, as well as strengthening its data collection in terms of disaggregated data.