Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) offenders and (b) victims of religiously aggravated offences in each of the last five years were of each religious belief.

These are despicable crimes that devastate lives and communities. Hate crimes are not acceptable and the courts hand out tougher punishments where race or religion are found to be aggravating factors.

Data on religious belief of offenders or victims are not reported centrally to the Ministry of Justice. This information may be held by the courts in England and Wales but as such it can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Data on the proportion of offenders and victims may be held by individual police forces in England and Wales.