Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of disability hate crime offences committed in each of the last five years.

The Home Office has collected disability hate crime data from the police since 2011/12.

In 2011/12, the police recorded 1,748 disability hate crime offences, 1,911 in 2012/13, 2,006 in 2013/14, and 2,508 in 2014/15.

As stated by the Office for National Statistics, action taken by police forces to improve their compliance with the National Crime Recording Standard has led to improved recording of crime over the last year, especially for violence against the person offences. Together with a greater awareness of disability hate crime, and improved willingness of victims to come forward, this is likely to be a factor in the increase in disability hate crimes recorded by the police.