Hate Crime: Young People

(asked on 23rd March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support is available to young people to help them report a hate crime if they are a victim or witness of such a crime at college or at school.


Answered by
Victoria Atkins Portrait
Victoria Atkins
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This question was answered on 31st March 2021

There is no place for racism and hatred in our education system. Schools and colleges have an important role in preparing children and young people for life in modern Britain. This involves supporting them to understand the society in which they are growing up and teaching about respect for other people and tolerance.

The Government expects schools to take a strong stand against all forms of bullying and discrimination and tackling it at the earliest opportunity to prevent it from escalating, particularly given the impact it can have on pupils, both emotionally and physically. Schools should develop their own approaches for monitoring bullying and discriminatory incidents and exercise their own judgement as to what will work best for their circumstances. We expect schools to support pupils affected by hate crimes and bullying as necessary.

The Government has continued to take action to support schools in this area. This work has included projects targeting bullying of particular groups, such as those with SEND and those who are victims of hate related bullying, along with a project to report bullying online.

In extreme circumstances, where schools are concerned that an incident of bullying or discrimination may amount to a criminal offence, they should report this to the police.

Victims may wish to seek contact from an organisation to provide them with support suitable to the victim’s needs. A list of such organisations can be found at the police-run True Vision website at the following link: https://www.report-it.org.uk/organisations_that_can_help

Information on whether or not hate crime offences recorded by the police in England and Wales took place in educational institutions is not recorded centrally.

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