Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what funding his Department has allocated to (a) local authorities and (b) the police to protect Jewish and Islamic cemeteries from targeted vandalism in each of the last four years.

Vandalism and the desecration of cemeteries are criminal offences and we are confident that these offences will be dealt with appropriately by the police, local services, and criminal justice system. Where these criminal offences are aggravated by hostility towards particular religious communities these will be investigated as hate crimes.

The Government provides funding support to specialist third party organisations the Community Security Trust and Tell Mama, both of which report hate crimes to the police, spread awareness about hate crimes, and provide victim support.