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 2015/16, there were 58,197 racist incidents recorded by the 43 police forces in England and Wales
(racist incident data excludes the British Transport Police), an increase of eight per cent compared
with the previous year. The number of racist incidents recorded by police remained relatively stable
between 2011/12 and 2013/14, before increasing by 10 per cent in 2014/15 (Figure 3.1; Appendix
Table 3.01). It is likely that improved identification and recording of racist incidents is a factor behind
the increase seen in the last two years. Furthermore, while incidents are recorded under the National
Standard for Incident Recording in accordance with the same ‘victim focused’ approach that applies
for recorded crime, it is known that there are substantial variations between police forces and over
time in how they record racist incidents. Given the greater quality, development and depth of the
police recorded hate crime; the Home Office has ceased collecting racist incident data from the
police.16
Figure 3.1: Number of racist incidents recorded by the police (excluding British Transport
Police), 2009/10 to 2015/16
70,000
Number of incidents
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
Source: Police recorded incidents, Home Office
16
See Introduction for more information.
16
2013/14
2014/15
2015/16