Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the trends in the level of disability hate crime in Wales in the last three years.

All forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable. We have a robust legislative framework to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity, and the Hate Crime Action Plan has improved the response to all forms of hate crime, including disability hate crime.

Increases in police recorded hate crime are generally driven by improvements in crime recording and a better indication of what constitutes a hate crime. Recorded disability hate crime has increased in both Wales and England over the past three years.

This may be due to a genuine increase in these crimes, or due to police force improvements in their recording of offences and identification of what constitutes hate crime.