New figures reveal scale of racial or religiously motivated hate crime in the East
Rates have gone up in Essex, but have remained steady or declined in Suffolk and Norfolk
Last updated 23rd Jun 2022
There has been a new high in the amount of racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded by police in England and Wales in 2021, new analysis shows.
A total of 76,884 racially and religiously aggravated offences were recorded in 2021, up 15% from 66,742 in 2020 with reaction to England's defeat at the Euro football championships likely to have contributed to the increase.
The easing of Covid-19 restrictions is another factor named by forces as having led to the rise in offences, along with improved recording of hate crimes.
In the East though not all our forces have seen quite such a big increase.
Essex did see a rise of around 15%, with cases reported up to just over 2,100 in the 12 months to May this year.
Suffolk stayed around the same though in 2021, with around 500 offence recorded.
Norfolk actually saw a dip with 564 recorded in 2021 - that's from from almost 600 the year before.
Offences have been on the rise since 2013
The number of offences has been on an upwards trend since 2013, the first calendar year for which comparable data is available. But this is the biggest percentage jump since 2017, which saw a 16% rise in offences fuelled by reaction to terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.
Independent charity Victim Support said the figures for 2021 were "seriously concerning" and fit a pattern for "spikes in hate crime linked to world events", while the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that "more still needs to be done to improve the quality of support for victims", including "effective hate crime training" for police forces.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said all forms of hate crime are "completely unacceptable - police will take, and do take, all reports seriously and we will do everything we can to investigate".
New high in numbers last year
The analysis has been compiled by the PA news agency from data published by the Home Office. It shows that of the 44 forces in England and Wales, 39 reported a rise in racially and religiously aggravated offences from 2020 to 2021, while 34 forces saw numbers last year reach a new high.
The offences - all of which are defined as hate crimes - include racially or religiously aggravated assault, harassment and criminal damage.
The Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of these offences last year (15,394, up 2% from 15,156 in 2020) followed by West Midlands (8,019, up 57% from 5,117), Greater Manchester (6,431, up 36% from 4,724) and West Yorkshire (5,334, up 15% from 4,642).
West Midlands and Greater Manchester also saw two of the largest year-on-year percentage increases, along with Gloucestershire (up 45% from 384 to 556) and Cleveland (up 34% from 631 to 843).
Rise in spikes influenced by "high profile events" and Covid restrictions
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force saw "several spikes" in reported hate crimes last year that were influenced by "high profile events", including a "sharp rise following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions."
"We take reports of hate crime seriously and record all instances, whether they pass the threshold to be classified as a crime or not," the spokesperson added.
Superintendent Rick Jackson, Greater Manchester Police's hate crime lead, said the number of incidents during lockdown were "unprecedently low, so it was to be expected that there would be an increase" once restrictions were lifted, and that it was "encouraging that members of our communities have the trust and confidence in Greater Manchester Police to report hate crime".
The UK went back into lockdown at the beginning of last year due to the second wave of Covid-19 infections, with tight restrictions on travel, socialising and leisure activities.
Figures up and down throughout the year
PA's analysis shows that January to March 2021 saw 13,899 racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded by forces in England and Wales, the lowest number for any quarter since the first three months of 2018.
But this was followed by a sharp jump to 21,239 offences in April to June, coinciding with the gradual lifting of Covid restrictions, before rising even higher in July-September (22,556) followed by slight drop in October-December (19,190).
The period July to September also coincided with the end of the Euro football championships, which saw England lose the final on July 11 in a penalty shootout with Italy.
Police made a number of arrests in the weeks following the final, after abusive posts on social media targeted England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, all of whom missed penalties.
One football fan who live-streamed himself on Facebook racially abusing the players was later handed a 10-week prison sentence, while another received a six-week sentence for racially abusing Rashford on Twitter.
A spokesperson for Cleveland Police, which saw one of the biggest percentage jumps in race and religious offences last year, confirmed the force "did see a rise in hate crime around the time of the Euro football tournament and the end of the football season" and has since stepped up its response, including appointing a hate crime co-ordinator to "give focus to investigation and training to ensure the best quality of service to communities".
Diana Fawcett, chief executive at Victim Support, said the figures reflect what the charity has been seeing in recent years, in particular an 11% increase in 2021 in its own recorded cases of hate crime, nearly three-quarters of which involved abuse based on race and religion.
"We consistently see spikes in hate crime linked to world events - for example, following the Euros finals last summer - so this could be one reason for the rise," she said.
"This trend is seriously concerning - no person or community should be targeted because of who they are."
What are our local police forces saying?
Essex Police:
Essex Police told us they do not tolerate hate crime, and say it's encouraging that people are increasingly confident to report incidents, but added they believe many still suffer in silence.
A spokesperson told us: "We recognise the problems that hate crime causes and how it can escalate. What starts as low-level anti-social behaviour can grow into community tensions.
"Tensions then normalise hatred, the hatred then grows, and we have offences committed by those motivated by hate.
"We’re dealing with problems at a community level and learning every day about how to deal more effectively with hate crime, and we’re becoming more effective at working with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to get better outcomes for the victims."
Suffolk Constabulary:
A Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said: “Suffolk Constabulary takes every report of hate crime very seriously and investigates incidents thoroughly. We continue to work with partners to ensure we are effectively supporting all members of our many communities.
“Hate crime in any form is unacceptable in today’s society and can have a devastating and often life changing impact on the victim. Finding the perpetrators who commit the crime online brings its own challenges, but we still take it very seriously, and are developing skills though our Digital Support Officers to assist in these often complex investigations.
“We work hard to raise awareness of what a hate crime is, meaning we now receive more reports. We want victims to be confident in coming forward, and we work with partners and external support groups to further raise awareness of hate crime and encourage wider reporting.
"We also provide inputs to school children to ensure the implications of hate crime are raised with them and its unacceptability in modern society. Through hate crime scrutiny panels we regularly review investigations and raise awareness amongst our staff and the community, to encourage reporting of hate crime and provide the appropriate support to people affected by it."