Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of (a) reported and (b) unreported hate crimes against (i) disabled people and (ii) homeless people in each of the last five years for which data is available.

The Home Office collects information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, by monitored strand, including disability. Information for the last five years can be found in the Home Office Open Data Tables for hate crime, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables

The number of hate crimes recorded by the police has increased over the last five years. The increase over this time period is largely due to general improvements in crime recording by the police, better identification by the police of what constitutes hate crime and more victims coming forward to report these crimes to the police.

The Home Office does not hold information on whether the victim of a crime was homeless or not. The Crime Survey for England and Wales for the combined years 2012/13 to 2014/15 estimates that 48% of overall hate crime was reported to the police.

This Government is committed to tackling hate crime. The UK has a strong legislative framework to tackle hate crime. We are working across Government with police, (including National Community Tensions Team), the Crown Prosecution Service and community partners to send out a clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated and we will vigorously pursue and prosecute those who commit these crimes.