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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to tackle Islamophobia.

The government does not tolerate hatred of any kind and is taking a number of steps to tackle Islamophobia. We have some of the strongest legislation in the world to tackle hate crime and where groups incite racial hatred or are engaged in racially or religiously motivated criminal activity, we would expect them to be prosecuted.

To support security training for places of worship, we have committed £1.6 million through the places of worship security grant this year. and a further £5 million over three years. We have also supported Tell MAMA with over £2.5 million between 2016 and 2020 to monitor and combat anti-Muslim hatred, and committed £1.5 million in new funding for hate crime projects including those tackling anti-Muslim hatred and racism in schools.

The government will also be appointing independent advisers to provide expert advice to government on a definition of Islamophobia. The first of these advisers, Imam Qari Asim MBE, was appointed on the 23 July 2019. Their work will draw on a wide range of opinions and they will work in close collaboration with the cross-government Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group.