Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Conclusion 5
10th Report – Discrimination, harassment and abuse against Muslim women
Published 30 Jan 2026
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Gendered Islamophobia All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The significant underreporting of hate incidents against Muslim women is a concern, and a barrier to it being tackled. Reasons for underreporting are various but include a lack of awareness of and confidence in the process. It is essential that the Government has data that accurately reflects the true scale of abuse, including whether victims are targeted due to their faith, ethnicity, or gender or a combination of both. Improved reporting and recording will allow trends to be identified and targeted interventions to be put in place. We welcome the Government’s commitment to defining anti Muslim hatred and await the outcome of the independent review. We would hope to see a true reflection of the intersectional needs of Muslim women to ensure that reporting, recording and trust in institutions is improved. (Conclusion, Paragraph 55)
From: Women and Equalities Committee, 10th Report – Discrimination, harassment and abuse against Muslim women (HC 571), 30 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 May 2026 (deadline 30 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's inquiry and sets out existing and planned action across media, policing, employment, health, online safety, schools and community programmes, agreeing with some recommendations, noting others, and declining to commit to further online transparency powers at this stage.
- On Law Commission hate crime recommendations, the government is "considering the 34 recommendations" and says it has "already taken steps on implementation where appropriate", citing an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill.
- On mayors, it "agree[s] with the Committee" that they are well placed to promote the reporting service, and "will write to all UK Mayors" encouraging them to promote it.
- On online abuse, it points to an existing statutory review of the Online Safety Act and says it needs to be "confident of where regulation is working" before introducing new measures.
- On schools, it will convene a "Tackling Anti-Muslim Hostility Roundtable" as a first step, and will procure and publish further anti-Muslim hostility resources on Educate Against Hate "in the next financial year".