Race and religious hate crime rises in England and Wales, figures suggest

Home Office figures show the number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales has increased for the first time in three years, including increases in racially and religiously motivated crimes.

There were 115,990 hate crime offenses at the end of March, excluding Metropolitan Police figures; this number was 113,166, an increase of 2% compared to the previous year.

Religious hate crimes targeting Muslims have risen by 19 per cent, the Home Office said, following a spike last summer following the Southport murders and subsequent riots.

The number of hate crimes against Jewish people fell by 18% compared to March, but these figures do not include those recorded by the Met Police.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood said Jewish and Muslim communities “continue to experience unacceptable levels of frequent violent hate crime”.

“Today’s hate crime statistics show that too many people live in fear because of who they are, what they believe or where they come from,” he said.

“I will not tolerate British people being targeted simply because of their religion, race or identity.”

Mahmood said the government has increased police patrols in synagogues and mosques. Last week, a synagogue was attacked in Manchester.

“We stand with every community facing these attacks and will ensure that those who commit hate crimes face the full force of the law,” he said.

The Met also showed that 40 percent of all religious hate crimes last year targeted Jewish people.

The number of religious hate crimes targeting Jewish people in England and Wales, excluding London, fell by 18% to 1,715, but this came after a 113% increase in recorded hate crimes against Jewish people compared to the previous year.

This included the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023.

The total number of racist hate crimes increased by 6% in the year to March.

A hate crime is a crime that targets a person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or disability.

A spokesman for the Community Security Trusts, a charity that protects British Jews, said that although figures showed a decline in recorded antisemitic hate crimes, “incidents remain very high given the small size of the Jewish community”.

“Disappointingly, these statistics do not include data from the Met Police, meaning they are significantly undercounted and give only a partial picture of the true scale of anti-Semitic hate crime in the UK,” he said.

“Much more needs to be done to tackle this problem and we will continue to work with government, police and community partners to do this.”

hate crimes figuresThe 43 regional police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police reported a decline in hate crimes across three other groups, including sexual orientation (down 2%), disability (down 8%) and transgender (down 11%).

There were 137,550 hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales, including the Met, but the department said the change in records meant the figures could not be directly compared on an annual basis.

The latest figures do not yet include recent events such as unrest following protests outside asylum hotels and reports of hate crimes at anti-immigration rallies.

Suresh Grover, founder of anti-racism charity The Monitoring Group, said the figures did not give the full picture of hate crimes experienced by some communities.

“Your color became your passport or nationality”.

He added that the victim’s “initial contact” with the police is absolutely critical and that “if they don’t intervene quickly, sensitively and in a way that prioritizes their safety, everything goes wrong and you lose those people in the available statistical data.”

“Worse still, you lose people who continue to suffer in silence.”

Imam Qari Asim, co-chair of the British Muslim Network, said: “Whether it is Islamophobia, antisemitism or any form of bigotry, we must confront it with unity and courage, not with silence.”

Of the total religious hate crimes recorded in the year ending March 2025, 45% targeted Muslims and 29% targeted Jews.

However, when the “hate crime rate” was examined, it was revealed that 106 crimes per 10,000 population targeted Jews and 12 crimes per 10,000 Muslims.