Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will commission independent research into the causes of Islamophobia.

A key part of our new Countering Extremism Strategy, published this week, outlines how we will engage with and protect Muslim communities from Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred.

We have access to a wide range of research on Islamophobia from academics, non-government organisations and from the Extremism Analysis Unit.

We have announced a new Cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan. As part of this we are engaging with partner organisations to establish the plan’s priority focus areas including future research requirement.

The Government also recognises the risk of Islamophobia in the UK as well as the increasing number of attacks aimed at the Muslim Community. To address this the PM has announced that from next year all police forces will be required to record Anti-Muslim hate crime as a distinct category when it is reported.