Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of recent statistics from Community Security Trust on the levels of antisemitism incidents since 7 October 2023; and what steps he is taking to help protect the safety of the Jewish community.

The Government utterly condemns the abhorrent spike in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate crime that has been seen as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.

This Government is committed to protecting the right of individuals to freely practise their religion at their chosen place of worship, and to making our streets and communities safer. The Government and police regularly review potential threats to ensure that everything is done to protect communities from hate crime.

Earlier this year, the Home Secretary established the Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce. This group brings together Government, law enforcement and the UK Jewish community (represented by the Community Security Trust (CST)) to discuss issues of safety and security concern to the community, and what can be done to ensure instances of antisemitism are comprehensively investigated and prosecuted.

We are continuing to support the police to ensure they have the resources and tools required to tackle any incidents relating to the ongoing conflict. Where people incite racial or religious hatred or where people’s conduct is threatening, abusive or disorderly and causes harassment, alarm or distress to others, we expect the police to take action to ensure perpetrators can be brought to justice.

In March 2023, the Home Secretary announced the continuation of the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant (JCPSG) and increased funding for 2023/24 by £1 million, to a total of £15 million. The JCPSG provides protective security measures (such as guarding, CCTV and alarm systems) at Jewish schools and other Jewish community sites. The Grant is managed on behalf of the Home Office by CST.

In response to the conflict and reports of increased incidents of antisemitism in the UK, the Prime Minister has announced additional funding of £3 million for CST to provide additional security at Jewish schools, synagogues and other Jewish Community sites. This brings the total funding for CST in FY2023/24 to £18 million. We continue to work closely with CST on how best to respond to live incidents that affect the Jewish communities in the UK.

More broadly, the Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also continue to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime. The Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these offences.