Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to reduce homophobic hate crimes since January 2016.

The Home Office was part of the steering group of an Equalities and Human Rights Commission project to tackle homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime, which ended earlier this year.

As a result, we have committed to work with organisations such as the anti-violence charity Galop to develop resources that specifically meet the needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) communities. We are also sharing existing good practice, including across the LGBT Hate Crime Network which was established by the project and is made up of over 30 groups across the country.

The cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan, developed following consultation with a number of LGBT groups, contains actions designed to tackle hate crime against LGB&T people. This includes an assessment of the levels of homophobic bullying in schools, renewed CPS legal guidance on homophobic, biphobic and transphobic crime and funding for community groups who are working to tackle hate crime, including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime.