Hate crimes rising sharply in England and Wales

Hate crimes in England and Wales have reached record levels. According to the Home Office, there were 103,379 hate crimes in the 12 months to March this year, an increase of 10 percent on 2017/18. While increases in hate crime over the last five years have been mainly driven by improvements in crime recording, the Home Office has observed spikes in incidents following events such as the EU Referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017.

When looking at the motivating factors behind these crimes, race is by far the most common - involved in 76 percent of offences. Although only accounting for 2 percent, crimes against transgender people rose dramatically in the last year, seeing a jump of 37 percent - the largest of the recorded factors. All types recorded an increase, and 'sexual orientation' had the second-largest proportional increase, at 25 percent.