Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to protect LGBT people from homophobic attacks.

The UK Government takes all forms of hate crime very seriously. We deplore all attacks motivated by religion, race or sexuality. Everyone should be able to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility, harassment or violence
on the grounds of a particular characteristic.

The Government’s action plan on hate crime brings together the activities of government departments that work with local agencies, voluntary organisations and an independent advisory group to meet three main objectives to challenge
attitudes and behaviours, increase the reporting of hate crime, and improve the operational response to it.

Our work includes encouraging anyone who is a victim of a hate crime or subject to religion or race-related abuse or attack to have the confidence to report it to the police so that the offenders can be dealt with appropriately. As part of
this, we issued guidance in 2014 to police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on dealing with hate crimes. This which includes advice on responding to incidents and how to monitor and deal with community tensions.

We have also worked with organisations, including Show Racism the Red Card, the Anne Frank Trust and the Jewish Museum to raise awareness of prejudice with children and young people, to prevent hate crime from happening in the first
place.

A progress report was published in May 2014 and provides an overview of our achievements, which include working with football authorities to help drive racism and homophobia out of football, worked with organisations such as Show
Racism the Red Card, the Anne Frank Trust and the Jewish Museum to raise awareness of prejudice with children and young people and supported the work of Tell MAMA to address anti-Muslim hatred. We have also seen the first
conviction(s) for offences of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation under Part 3A of the Public Order Act 1986 (as amended). The progress report also includes case study examples which demonstrate how
work is being carried out locally. The report is available in the House of Commons Library.