Hate crimes England and Wales
Source: data.gov.uk (2015-10-22)

Hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales by police force area.  ‘Hate crime’ is any criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by hostility towards someone based on their disability, race, religion, gender-identity or sexual orientation, whether perceived to be so by the victim or any other person.

Hate Crimes, England and 
Wales, 2013/14  
 
Byron Creese and Deborah Lader 
 
Kevin Smith (Ed.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
16 October 2014 
HOSB: 02/14 
 
 
 
 
Home Office Statistical Bulletin 
Statistical Bulletins are prepared by 
staff in Home Office Statistics under 
the Code of Practice for Official 
Statistics and can be downloaded 
from both the UK Statistics Authority 
website and the Home Office 
website:  
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisa
tions/home-office/about/statistics 
 
© Crown Copyright 2014  
You may re-use this information (not 
including logos) free of charge in 
any format or medium, under the 
terms of the Open Government 
Licence. To view this licence, visit  
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or write to the Information Policy 
Team, The National Archives, Kew, 
London, TW9 4DU or e-mail:  
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ISSN 1759-7005 
ISBN 978-1-78246-516-4 
 

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
POLICE RECORDED CRIME 
In accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, statistics based on police 
recorded crime data have been assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and found 
not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report 
can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. Alongside the Crime in England and Wales, Year 
Ending March 2014 release, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a progress update on 
actions taken in addressing the requirements set out by the Authority. Further information is provided 
in the Hate Crimes Data Quality section (Annex A).   
 
For further information about police recorded crime statistics, please email: 
xxx@xxx.xx or write to: 
Home Office Statistics, 1st Floor, Peel Building, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF. 
 
Home Office Responsible Statistician: 
David Blunt, Chief Statistician and Head of Profession for Statistics 
Contact via xxx@xxx.xx 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This statistical bulletin is produced to the highest professional standards and is free from 
political interference. It has been produced by statisticians working in the Home Office 
Statistics Unit in accordance with the Home Office’s Statement of Compliance with the Code 
of Practice for Official Statistics, which covers our policy on revisions and other matters. The 
Home Office Statistics Unit works under the direct line management of the Home Office Chief 
Statistician, who reports to the National Statistician with respect to all professional statistical 
matters. 
2

 
 
Key points 
 In 2013/14, there were 44,480 hate crimes recorded by the police, an increase of five per cent 
compared with 2012/13, of which: 
 
37,484 (84%) were race hate crimes; 
 
4,622 (10%) were sexual orientation hate crimes; 
 
2,273 (5%) were religion hate crimes; 
 
1,985 (4%) were disability hate crimes; and 
 
555 (1%) were transgender hate crimes. 
 It is possible for one hate crime offence to have more than one motivating factor which is why the 
above numbers sum to more than 44,480 and 100 per cent. 
 There were increases in all five of the monitored hate crime strands (race, religion, sexual 
orientation, disability and transgender identity) between 2012/13 and 2013/14. 
 Much of the increase in race and religious hate crime is likely to be due to a rise in offences in the 
months immediately following the murder of Lee Rigby in May 2013. Additionally, the police may 
have improved their recording of crime and the identification of motivating factors in an offence 
over the last year.  
 It is less clear whether the increase in sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity hate 
crime reflects a real rise in hate crime or improved police identification of these offences. The 
increase across all three strands may suggest improved identification is a factor.  
 
 
3

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
1 - Introduction 
1.1 - OVERVIEW 
This publication provides information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in England 
and Wales in 2013/14.  
Further information on hate crimes including data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales 
(CSEW) and figures from the Ministry of Justice can be found in ‘An Overview of Hate Crime in 
England and Wales’, released in December 2013.  
Hate crimes recorded by the police 
Hate crime is defined as ‘any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to 
be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.’ This 
common definition was agreed in 2007 by the police, Crown Prosecution Service, Prison Service (now 
the National Offender Management Service) and other agencies that make up the criminal justice 
system. There are five centrally monitored strands of hate crime: 
 race or ethnicity; 
 religion or beliefs; 
 sexual orientation; 
 disability; and 
 transgender identity. 
Hate crimes are a subset of notifiable crimes that are recorded by the police and make up around one 
per cent of all crimes (based on police recorded crime figures for 2013/14, see ‘Crime in England and 
Wales, Year Ending March 2014’). 
In the process of recording a crime, police can flag an offence as being motivated by one or more of 
the five monitored strands above (for example, an offence can be motivated by hostility towards the 
victim’s race and religion). Figures in this bulletin show both how many hate crime offences the police 
recorded, and how many motivating factors these offences covered (for more information see Annex 
A).  
Around two per cent of hate crime offences in 2013/14 are estimated to have involved more than one 
motivating factor1. 
Hate crimes and racially or religiously aggravated offences 
There are some offences in the main police recorded crime collection which can be recorded as 
racially or religiously aggravated. These are defined by statute and constitute a set of offences which 
are distinct from their non-racially or religiously aggravated equivalents (the full list of these is shown 
in Table 1). These racially or religiously aggravated offences are by definition (see above) hate crimes.  
However, the hate crime collection on which the majority of the bulletin is based has a wider coverage 
of race and religious hate crime. This is because the hate crime flag described above can be applied 
to any offence, not just those for which there is a separate racially or religiously aggravated offence for 
                                                 
1 Estimation from 18 Home Office Data Hub forces who supplied suitable data, see section 2.2 for more 
information on the Home Office Data Hub. 
4

 
 
the police to record against. Therefore, the number of race or religious hate crimes in this bulletin will 
be greater than the total number of police recorded racially or religiously aggravated offences.  
Table 1: The five racially or religiously aggravated offences and their non-racially or religiously 
aggravated equivalents 
 
Racist incidents recorded by the police 
This release contains figures on the number of racist incidents reported to police forces in England 
and Wales (excluding British Transport Police). A ‘racist incident’ is any incident, including any crime, 
which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based 
on a person’s race or perceived race. 
Racist incidents include notifiable offences, non-notifiable offences (e.g. some types of anti-social 
behaviour), incidents that were not subsequently recorded as crimes and ‘no crimes’2. Conversely, 
certain race hate crimes may not have been initially recorded as racist incidents if the racial motivation 
was not immediately apparent. For these reasons, the racist incidents total does not match the race 
hate crimes total.  
 
 
 
                                                 
2 A no-crime occurs when the police have originally recorded an offence, but have subsequently determined that 
the crime did not take place, or was recorded in error. Offences may be no-crimed in one of the following 
situations: 1) The crime was committed outside the jurisdiction of the police force in which it was recorded. In this 
case it will be no-crimed and referred to the appropriate force; 2) additional verifiable information becomes 
available that determines that no notifiable crime has been committed; 3) The crime is part of a crime that has 
already been recorded; 4) An incident has been recorded as a crime by mistake; 5) The crime was one of assault 
(not more serious than actual bodily harm) and there is clear evidence that the offender acted in self defence. 
Offence code Offence
Offence code
Offence
8P
Racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury
8N
Assault with injury 
105B
Racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury
105A
Assault without Injury
8M
Racially or religiously aggravated harassment 
8L
Harassment 
9B
Racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress
9A
Public fear, alarm or distress
58J
Racially or religiously aggravated other criminal damage
58A
Criminal damage to a dwelling
58B
Criminal damage to a building other than a dwelling
58C
Criminal damage to a vehicle
58D
Other criminal damage
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office
Racially or Religiously Aggravated
Non-Racially or Religiously Aggravated Equivalent
5

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
2 - Hate Crimes 
2.1 – PREVALENCE AND TRENDS 
There were 44,480 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2013/14, an increase 
of five per cent compared with 2012/13 (42,236 offences; see Table 2).  
Table 2: Hate crimes recorded by police by monitored strand, 2011/12 to 2013/14 
 
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office 
Table notes: 
1. 
A breakdown of 2011/12 data by police force area is available from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-
crimes-england-and-wales-2011-to-2012--2 
Table 2 also shows the number of hate crimes broken down by monitored strand. It is possible for a 
crime to have more than one motivating factor (for example an offence may be motivated by hostility 
towards the victim’s race and religion). Thus, as well as recording the overall number of hate crimes, 
the police also collect data on the number of motivating factors by strand as shown in Table 2.  
In 2013/14, of the 44,480 hate crimes: 
 37,484 (84%) were race hate crimes; 
 4,622 (10%) were sexual orientation hate crimes; 
 2,273 (5%) were religion hate crimes; 
 1,985 (4%) were disability hate crimes; and 
 555 (1%) were transgender hate crimes. 
There were increases in all five of the centrally monitored strands between 2012/13 and 2013/14 
(Table 2).  
Numbers and percentages
England and Wales, recorded crime
Hate crime strand
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
% change 
2012/13 to 
2013/14
Race
36,008
35,889
37,484
4
Religion
1,621
1,573
2,273
45
Sexual orientation
4,364
4,261
4,622
8
Disability
1,753
1,843
1,985
8
Transgender
310
361
555
54
Total number of motivating factors
44,056
43,927
46,919
7
Total number of hate crimes
N/A
42,236
               
44,480
              
5
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office
6

 
 
The Office for National Statistics has attributed recent increases in some categories of police recorded 
crime to improvements in police recording rather than a real increase in offences3. For example, there 
was a six per cent increase in the overall number of police recorded violence against the person 
offences between 2012/13 and 2013/14 while other sources of violent crime trends (including the 
Crime Survey for England and Wales and NHS hospital admissions for assault4) fell over the same 
period. Around a third (30%) of police recorded hate crime is for violence against the person offences 
(see Section 2.3 for more detail), so any improvements in the recording of these offences may be a 
factor in the trend in overall hate crime. An additional cause of the rise in hate crime may be an 
improved identification of motivating factors behind an offence. That is, of all the violent offences 
recorded in 2013/14, the police may have identified and flagged a higher proportion as hate crimes 
than in previous years. 
However, there is evidence to suggest that the increase in race and religious hate crimes may be 
partly due to higher levels of hate crime following the murder of Lee Rigby, rather than solely due an 
improvement in the identification of offences as hate crimes. This is discussed in more detail below. 
Race and religious hate crimes 
The number of race hate crimes increased by four per cent (up 1,595, to 37,484 offences; Table 2) 
between 2012/13 and 2013/14. Over the same period, religious hate crime increased by 45 per cent 
(up 700 to 2,273 offences; Table 2).  
Together, racially and religiously motivated hate crime accounted for around three-quarters of the 
increase in overall hate crime seen in the last year. A contributing factor behind the rise in these two 
strands of hate crime is likely to be an increase in offences following the murder of Lee Rigby in May 
2013.  
As mentioned in the Introduction, the police have the option to record some offences as racially or 
religiously aggravated. While not covering all hate crime offences, in practice the majority of race or 
religious hate crimes that the police record will come under one of these aggravated offence codes. 
The data the Home Office receives from the police in the main police recorded crime return for these 
offences are available on a monthly basis5, allowing the trend in these offences to be seen around the 
time of the Lee Rigby murder.  
Figures 1 and 2 show the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences for public fear alarm or 
distress and assault with/without injury (which together accounted for around 90% and 70% of all race 
and religious hate crime respectively, see Section 2.2). As shown in both charts, there was an 
increase in the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences in the immediate time period 
following the Lee Rigby murder in May 2013. The number of offences then returned to similar levels 
seen in 2012/13 and 2011/12. Without the increase in offences seen between May and July 2013, the 
number of racially or religiously aggravated offences would have been at a similar level to the previous 
two years. Due to the fact the majority of race hate crimes are recorded in these aggravated offences 
available to the police, the overall level of race hate crimes will be affected similarly.  
Furthermore, because the majority of hate crimes recorded by the police are motivated by race (84%), 
hate crimes motivated by this strand tend to drive overall trends in hate crime. Therefore, much of the 
five per cent increase seen in overall hate crime between 2012/13 and 2013/14 (Table 2) is likely to be 
due to the increase seen in racial or religiously aggravated offences following the Lee Rigby murder.  
 
 
 
                                                 
3 See http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-march-2014/stb-crime-stats.html 
4 NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre, dated 15th July 2014. 
5 Although data from the main police recorded crime collection are sent to the Home Office broken down by 
month, the data are only quality assured with police forces on a quarterly basis. 
7

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
Figure 1: Number of racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress offences by 
month, 2011/12 to 2013/14 
 
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office 
Figure 2: Number of racially or religiously aggravated assault with and without injury offences 
by month, 2011/12 to 2013/14
 
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office 
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
Number of racially or religiously aggravated 
public fear, alarm or distress offences 
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Number of racially or religiously aggravated 
assault with/without injury offences
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
8

 
 
The Home Office Data Hub (see Section 2.2 for more detail about the Data Hub) provides 
supplementary information on race and religious hate crimes, which covers all notifiable offences 
(rather than just assault with/without injury and public order offences) for a subset of forces. A similar 
pattern is observed as that seen for the racially or religiously aggravated offences described above; 
the number of offences increased sharply in May, June and July 2013. The number of hate crimes 
then fell, with little difference between 2012/13 and 2013/14 for the months of October to March (data 
not shown).  
In addition, in June 2013 the Metropolitan Police (who are not included in the Data Hub data) reported 
there had been an increase in Islamophobic hate crime in the wake of the Lee Rigby murder6. 
Appendix Tables 1.01 and 1.02 show that Metropolitian Police recorded a 45 per cent increase in 
religious hate crimes between 2012/13 and 2013/14,from 631 to 915 offences. As the Metropolitan 
Police accounted for around 40 per cent of all religious hate crime in England and Wales in 2012/13 
and 2013/14, changes in the level of offences in this police force area can drive the national trend.  
The pattern of higher levels of race and religious hate crime in May, June and July 2013 compared 
with the same period in the previous year is not observed for the other strands of hate crime (sexual 
orientation, disability and transgender identity; data not shown). 
Race hate crime was the most commonly recorded strand of hate crime in all 44 police forces. For the 
majority of forces (89%), religious hate crime was either the third or fourth most commonly recorded 
strand (Appendix Table 1.02). 
The Home Office also collects data on the number of racist incidents (that is notifiable offences as well 
as incidents which do not amount to a crime in law) recorded by police, more detail on these figures is 
included in Section 3. These data are only available by financial year, so cannot be used to assess the 
effect of external events on the number of incidents recorded.  
Sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity  
Transgender identity hate crime saw the biggest percentage increase of the five strands between 
2012/13 and 2013/14 (54%) while disability and sexual orientation hate crime increased by similar 
proportions to race hate crime (both by 8%). Disability and transgender hate crime are the only two 
strands which have increased each year since 2011/12 (Table 2).  
It is less clear whether increases in disability, sexual orientation and transgender hate crime reflect a 
real rise in these offences or whether they reflect improved identification and recording practices by 
the police. The increase across all three strands may suggest improved identification of hate crime is a 
factor, but genuine increases cannot be ruled out. 
In the majority of police forces (89%), sexual orientation hate crime was the second most commonly 
recorded hate crime while in 82 per cent of forces transgender identity hate crime was the least 
commonly recorded hate crime (Appendix Table 1.02).  
2.2 – MORE DETAILED HATE CRIME DATA FROM THE HOME OFFICE DATA 
HUB 
The Home Office are currently implementing a new data collection system called the Data Hub which 
is designed to streamline the process by which forces submit data. The Home Office Data Hub will 
replace the current system with automated capturing of record level crime data via direct extracts from 
forces' own crime recording systems. As a result the police will also be able to provide more detailed 
information to the Home Office which will allow a greater range of analyses to be carried out. The 
                                                 
6 Simon Letchford interviewed on the Today Programme, 10 June 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22838581 
 
9

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
migration to the new system is ongoing and for forces providing data via the Data Hub, it is possible to 
exploit this richer data and conduct a more in depth analysis of hate crime offences.  
Eighteen police forces7 (accounting for 23% of the total number of hate crimes recorded in 2013/14) 
provided suitable hate crime data through the Data Hub for 2013/14; although notably this did not 
include the Metropolitan Police whose data accounts for around one quarter of police recorded hate 
crime. It is therefore important to note that the analysis in this section may not be representative of all 
forces in England and Wales. 
Hate crimes by type of offence 
Using the Data Hub it is possible to examine which specific types of offence have been flagged as 
hate crimes. The available data show that for the 18 police forces analysed (Appendix Table 1.03): 
 
fifty-five per cent of hate crimes were public order offences, with the vast majority of these 
(98%) being public fear, alarm or distress; 
 
thirty per cent were violence against the person offences, of which 34 per cent were violence 
with injury and 66 per cent were violence without injury offences; and 
 
ten per cent were criminal damage/arson offences while the remaining five per cent were 
other notifiable offences such as theft and sexual offences.  
By way of comparison, Figure 3 shows that in 2013/14, public order, violence against the person and 
criminal damage/arson offences accounted for four per cent, 18 per cent and 14 per cent of all police 
recorded crime offences respectively (Crime in England and Wales, Year Ending March 2014).  
Figure 3: Breakdown of hate crimes and overall recorded crime by selected offence types, 18 
police forces, England and Wales, 2013/14 
 
 
                                                 
7 The following forces submitted suitable data via the Data Hub in 2013/14: Avon and Somerset, Cambridgeshire, 
Cheshire, City of London, Cleveland, Derbyshire, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, 
Northamptonshire, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Surrey, Thames Valley. 
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Hate Crime
Overall recorded crime
Percentage
Public order
Violence against the person
Criminal damage and arson
Other notifiable offences
10

 
 
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office 
Figure 4 shows the proportion of offence types for each monitored strand. Public order offences and 
violence against the person were the two most common offence types associated with hate crime for 
all strands except religion. For religious hate crime, while public order offences were the most 
common, the second most common offence type was criminal damage/arson. The monitored strands 
with the highest proportions of violence against the person were sexual orientation (42%) and 
disability (40%). 
Figure 4: Breakdown of hate crime by selected offence types, 18 police forces, England and 
Wales, 2013/14  
 
Source: Police recorded crime, Home Office 
As mentioned above, the category of violence against the person can be broken down further into 
violence with injury and violence without injury. Examples of violence with injury offences are assault 
with intent to cause serious harm and assault with injury, while violence without injury includes 
offences such as harassment and assault without injury.  
In 2013/14, 34 per cent of violent hate crimes were violence with injury (Appendix Table 1.03). In 
comparison, around half of all police recorded violence offences were violence with injury from the 18 
Data Hub forces (a similar figure to the proportion across all forces). The proportion of violence 
against the person offences which were violence with injury varied by hate crime strand: 46 per cent of 
sexual orientation hate crime was violence with injury, higher than all other monitored strands which 
varied between a quarter (transgender) and a third (race). 
Outcomes 
The Data Hub also provides information on the outcomes of offences flagged as hate crime. The new 
outcomes framework replaced the detections framework in April 2013. The move from detections to 
outcomes is a significant change, with an emphasis on greater transparency on how all crimes 
recorded by the police are dealt with. The previous focus on detections (i.e. crimes resolved via a 
sanction against the offender, such as a charge, summons or caution) gave a partial picture of the 
work police do to investigate and resolve crime. Data for the full outcomes framework will not be 
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Race
Religion
Sexual 
orientation
Disability
Transgender
Total hate 
crime
Percentage
Public order offences
Violence against the person
Criminal damage and arson
Other notifiable offences
11

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
available until 2014/15 so analysis below is constrained to outcomes that were available to the police 
under the old detections framework. For more information on outcomes see Crime Outcomes in 
England and Wales 2013/14.  
Analysis of the 18 forces who supplied suitable data via the Data Hub shows that (also see Appendix 
Table 1.04): 
 Public order hate crime offences were less likely to be dealt with by a charge / summons or a 
caution than public order offences for overall crime. Thirty-seven per cent of public order hate 
crime offences resulted in a charge or summons and seven per cent resulted in a caution 
(compared with 40% and 10% respectively for overall crime). 
This is partly due to the mix of offences; 98 per cent of hate crime public order offences in 
2013/14 were for public fear, alarm or distress. For overall crime, this figure is lower, at 74 per 
cent, with 26 per cent being for other offences against the state and public order. These 
offences tend to have a higher charge / summons rate than public fear, alarm or distress, hence 
the higher charge / summons rate for crime overall. For public fear, alarm or distress, there is 
little difference in the charge / summons rates between hate crime and overall crime. 
 In contrast, violence against the person hate crime offences were more likely to be dealt with by 
charge / summons than overall violence (33% compared with 26%). Cautions were less likely to 
be used for violent hate crime offences (5%) than overall violence (11%).  
 Fourteen per cent of criminal damage hate crime offences resulted in a charge or summons and 
four per cent resulted in a caution (compared with 9% and 6% respectively for overall crime). 
 
 
12

 
 
3 - Racist Incidents 
A ‘racist incident’ is defined as any incident, including any crime, which is perceived to be racist by the 
victim or any other person. The coverage is wider than the race hate crime collection as non-notifiable 
offences, as well as notifiable offences, are included.  
 
In 2013/14, there were 47,571 racist incidents recorded by the 43 police forces in England and Wales 
(racist incident data excludes the British Transport Police). The number of racist incidents recorded by 
police has remained relatively stable for the past three years. Prior to this the number of racist 
incidents fell between 2009/10 and 2011/12 (Figure 5; Appendix Table 1.05).  
 
Figure 5: Number of racist incidents recorded by police (excluding British Transport Police), 
England and Wales, 2009/10 to 2013/14 
 
 
 
Source: Police recorded incidents, Home Office 
 
 
 
 
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
Number of incidents
13

Hate crimes, England and Wales 2013/14 
 
Further information 
‘Hate Crimes, England and Wales, 2011/12’ is available from: 
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crimes-england-and-wales-2011-to-2012--2 
‘An Overview of Hate Crimes in England Wales’ (wider coverage using data from the Ministry of 
Justice and the Crime Survey for England and Wales) is available from: 
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/an-overview-of-hate-crime-in-england-and-wales 
Other sources of hate crime data from a number of different organisations (including the Association of 
Chief Police Officers, Stonewall and the Crown Prosecution Service) can be found here: 
http://www.report-it.org.uk/hate_crime_data1 (figures published by ACPO are based upon calendar 
year data and also include Northern Ireland). 
The True Vision website contains more information about hate crime and how to report it: 
http://www.report-it.org.uk/home 
Information about ‘Challenge it, Report it, Stop it: The Government’s Plan to Tackle Hate Crime’ can 
be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/challenge-it-report-it-stop-it-a-plan-to-tackle-
hate-crime, and the latest update can be found here: 
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/307624/HateCrimeActio
nPlanProgressReport.pdf 
Hate crime statistics published by the Scottish and Northern Irish governments can be found here: 
http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates_domestic_and_hate_motivation_statistics.htm 
http://www.copfs.gov.uk/media-site/latest-news-from-copfs/773-hate-crime-in-scotland-2013-14 
(figures published by the Scottish Government are based on the number of offenders charged, rather 
than police recorded crime). 
The Crown Prosecution Service website also carried information about hate crime, including policy 
and guidance and performance information, which can be found here: 
http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/equality/hate_crime/index.html 
A report by the Law Commission which considers whether hate crime offences should be extended to 
cover all five on the monitored strands can be found here: 
http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/docs/lc348_hate_crime.pdf 
Copies of other Home Office publications (including crime statistics releases prior to April 2012) are 
available from: 
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/crime-statistics#publications 
Copies of crime statistics publications from April 2012 are available from the Office for National 
Statistics website:  
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Crime+and+Justice 
This includes the User Guide to Crime Statistics, a useful reference guide with explanatory notes 
regarding the issues and classifications that are key to the production and presentation of the crime 
statistics. 
The dates of forthcoming publications are pre-announced and can be found via the UK National 
Statistics Publication Hub:  https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements 
  
 
14

 
 
Annex A – Hate Crimes Data Quality 
INTRODUCTION 
In January 2014, the UK Statistics Authority published its assessment of ONS crime statistics. It found 
that statistics based on police recorded crime data, having been assessed against the Code of 
Practice for Official Statistics, did not meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. 
The UK Statistics Authority published a list of requirements for these statistics to regain the National 
Statistics accreditation.  
Some of the requirements of this assessment were to provide more detail on how data sources were 
used to produce these statistics, along with more information on the quality of the statistics. 
Additionally, there was also a requirement to provide information on the process used by police forces 
to submit and revise data, and the validation processes used by the Home Office. In order to ensure 
that this publication meets the high standards required by the UK Statistics Authority, details are 
provided below. 
DATA SOURCES AND VALIDATION PROCESS 
Hate crime data are supplied to the Home Office by the 43 territorial police forces of England and 
Wales, plus the British Transport Police. Forces either supplied the data monthly via the Home Office 
Data Hub or on an annual basis in an aggregated return. For forces with data on the Data Hub, the 
Home Office extracts the number of offences for each force which have been flagged by forces as 
having been motivated by one or more of the monitored strands. It is then possible to derive the count 
of offences and the number of monitored strands covered. In the aggregate return, police forces 
submit both the total number of hate crime offences (that is a count of the number of unique offences 
motivated by one or more of the five monitored strands) and the number of monitored strands (or 
motivating factors) associated with these offences. The second figure is supplied broken down by 
monitored strand so an offence motivated by hostility to race and religion would be counted twice, 
once under each of the strands.  
At the end of each financial year the Home Office carry out a series of quality assurance checks on 
the data collected from the police forces (either by aggregate return or from the Data Hub). These 
checks include: 
 
Looking for any large or unusual changes in hate crimes from the previous year. 
 
Looking for outliers. 
 
Checking that the total number of hate crimes is higher than the total number of offences. 
Where these two figures were the same, the force was asked to confirm they were recording 
multiple hate crime strands. 
 
Police forces are then asked to investigate these trends and either provide an explanation, or resubmit 
figures where the reconciliation identifies issues. 
  
The data are then tabulated by monitored strand and year (2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14) and sent 
back to forces for them to verify. At this stage they are asked to confirm in writing that the data they 
submitted are correct and if they are not, then they have the opportunity to revise their figures. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ISBN:978 1 78246 516 4 
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