Recommendation 17

HM Government Accepted

Any hate crime is unacceptable, and we are committed to tackling it. That is why we published the Hate Crime Action Plan in 2016 and refreshed it in 2018. This has helped improve the police response to, and public awareness of, all forms of hate crime. To improve understanding of what hate crimes are, the Government rolled out a communications campaign in October 2018 which ran for four weeks and was repeated in 2019. The campaign objectives were created in conjunction with civil society partners and the Crown Prosecution Service and aimed to increase awareness and understanding of what constitutes a hate crime, particularly the many types of offences which often people, including victims, do not recognise as criminal, such as many forms of online and verbal abuse. It also aimed to demonstrate to the public and reassure targeted groups that Government takes this behaviour seriously. Increases in police-recorded hate crime has been partly driven by general improvements in crime recording, better identification of what constitutes a hate crime by the police and increased willingness amongst victims to come forward. This reflects the hard work that has gone in to ensuring police can target their resources and understand the scale of the challenge, and that victims get the support they need. The Government has created a comprehensive system of reporting and recording of all crimes targeting race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity. The Home Office began collecting information on the ethnicity of victims of race hate crimes in April 2021 and we plan to publish data in due course. The Home Office recognises the importance of disaggregating data on hate crime to enable a clearer picture of victims and to better direct support services. We therefore asked police forces to use consistent standards for disaggregating hate crimes by ethnicity from 1 April 2021. It is now mandatory for police forces to record the ethnicity of victims of racially or religiously aggravated offences. This is part of the Government’s efforts to improve its understanding of all hate crimes and builds on the successful disaggregation of religious hate crimes under the last Action Plan. However, Chief Constables are ultimately responsible for the quality of data for their respective forces. We welcome and encourage improvements made by forces on data quality. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services also provide a vital role in accessing police forces’ understanding and response to hate crime. Good progress has been made, but the Government recognises that more needs to be done to support victims and tackle hate crime. To address this going forward, we will shortly publish a new strategy for tackling hate crime, setting out our commitment to stamping out these abhorrent crimes. We will be putting victims at the heart of this new strategy, which will aim to increase public knowledge, confidence, and awareness to report hate crime, and to increase public confidence and victim satisfaction in the criminal justice response to these crimes. The strategy will also focus on tackling online hate crime. In addition, following the racist abuse directed at some England players after the European Championship (Euro 2020) final, we committed to extending the use of Football Banning Orders so that online abusers can be banned from stadiums for up to 10 years, in the same way that violent thugs are barred from grounds. We also fund the Police Online Hate Crime Hub to improve the police response to victims of online hate crime and help police forces coordinate investigations. The Hub allows the public to report any online abuse through a single online portal, known as True Vision and, where a jurisdiction can be identified, it is passed to the relevant force. Where this is not possible (e.g. because a perpetrator cannot be identified), the Hub also directs support to victims. Operation Modify forms part of the Digital Intelligence and Investigations programme funded by the Home Office and delivered by the College of Policing (College). Operation Modify is an interactive learning experience designed to help police officers and staff acquire the digital skills needed to undertake investigations effectively. The episodes follow the events of an initial incident. It allows users to investigate and uncover digital evidence, prompting them to use their digital knowledge and skills to solve the crime. This includes training on digital forensics, internet intelligence and investigations and supporting victims of digital crimes.