Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Rejected
Paragraph: 112
Set out timetable for publishing an updated government strategy for tackling hate crime.
Recommendation
The Government must set out in its response to our report when it intends to publish an updated strategy for tackling hate crime.
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the seriousness of hate crime and details existing measures and resources for policing. However, it explicitly states it does not currently intend to publish a new Hate Crime Strategy, thus rejecting the recommendation to set out a timeline for its publication.
Paragraph Reference:
112
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
This Government is clear that all forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable. We have a robust legislative framework to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity. Whilst the police are operationally independent and work in line with the College of Policing’s operational guidance to respond to hate crime, we expect the police to fully investigate these appalling offences and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice. Our absolute priority is to get more police onto our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training. We delivered our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers and there are over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, which is higher than the previous peak in March 2010 before the Police Uplift Programme. Whilst the Government does not currently intend to publish a Hate Crime Strategy, we keep our approach to tacking hate crime under constant review. We remain committed to continuing to protect all communities from crime and have a number of programmes in place to do so. For example, the government has worked with the police to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.