Key points
Police recorded crime
In 2015/16, there were 62,518 offences recorded by the police in which one or more hate crime
strands were deemed to be a motivating factor. This was an increase of 19 per cent compared
with the 52,4651 hate crimes recorded in 2014/15.
The number of hate crime offences in 2015/16 for the five centrally monitored strands were as
follows:
49,419 (79%) were race hate crimes;
7,194 (12%) were sexual orientation hate crimes;
4,400 (7%) were religious hate crimes;
3,629 (6%) were disability hate crimes; and
858 (1%) were transgender hate crimes.
It is possible for a hate crime offence to have more than one motivating factor which is why the
above numbers sum to more than 62,518 and 100 per cent.
There were increases in offences recorded for all five of the monitored hate crime strands
between 2014/15 and 2015/16.
As stated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), action taken by police forces to improve
their compliance with the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) has led to improved
recording of crime over the last year, especially for violence against the person offences.
Together with a greater awareness of hate crime, and improved willingness of victims to come
forward, this is likely to be a factor in the increase in hate crimes recorded by the police in
2015/16 compared with the previous year.
As this publication covers hate crimes recorded by the police between 1 April 2015 and 31
March 2016, the number of offences will not be affected by any increase in hate crime following
the EU Referendum which took place on 23 June 2016. However, an Annex is provided in this
publication, which examines levels of hate crime (specifically racially or religiously aggravated
offences) around the EU Referendum.
There was a sharp increase in the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences
recorded by the police following the EU Referendum. The number of racially or religiously
aggravated offences recorded by the police in July 2016 was 41% higher than in July 2015.
1
Figure differs to that previously published (52,528) due to small changes in the volume of crimes identified by
forces as hate crimes.
1