Hate crimes against gay and bisexual people in the UK have rocketed by double-digit figures, new statistics show.
Twelve percent (11,638 crimes) of recorded hate crimes in England and Wales were directed at gay and bisexual people new figures from the Home Office reveal, a 17 percent increase since last year.
Two percent of recorded hate crime (1651 crimes) were those against transgender people – up a staggering 32 percent.
Overall recorded hate crimes were up, with nearly 100,000 crimes reported. Double the amount in just five years. The majority of hate crime (75%, 71,251 crimes) were racially motivated. Religious-based hate crime accounted for 9 percent (8336 crimes) of recorded crimes.
A report from the Home Office made a suggestion as to why the figures had soared stating, “This increase is thought to be largely driven by improvements in police recording, although there has been spikes in hate crime following certain events such as the EU referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017,
“It is thought that the sharp increase in religious hate crimes is due to a rise in these offences following the terrorist attacks in 2017.”
Worryingly, the number of closed prosecutions dropped by over 2 per cent from 14,480 in 2016/17 to 14,151 in 2017/18.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said, “Hate crime goes directly against the long-standing British values of unity, tolerance and mutual respect – and I am committed to stamping this sickening behaviour out.
“Our refreshed action plan sets out how we will tackle the root causes of prejudice and racism, support hate crime victims and ensure offenders face the full force of the law”.
Only a small proportion of crimes get recorded
The home office report also suggests that only a small proportion of hate crimes against LGBT people are reported. The combined 2015/16 to 2017/18 dataset estimates that there were 30,000 sexual orientation hate crimes per year.
