Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the Tell MAMA Annual Report for 2016 on Anti-Muslim Hatred; and what steps his Department plans to take to address the increase in the proportion of directly abusive and violent anti-Muslim incidents.

We take hate crime in all its forms very seriously that is why the United Kingdom has some of the strongest hate crime legislation in the world. The increase in hate crime reported to Tell Mama in part reflects a greater encouragement and confidence around reporting as well as an increasing number of data sharing agreements with police forces.

Nevertheless, it is deplorable that any Muslim citizens should be subjected to abuse on account of their belief or appearance.

My Department works with Muslim communities through our anti-Muslim-hatred working group to address the problem of hate crime and to encourage greater reporting.