Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the prevalence of abuse of people of restricted growth.

We have a robust legislative framework to respond to all forms of hate crime, including those which target a person’s disability.

Whilst the police are operationally independent and work in line with the College of Policing’s operational guidance to respond to hate crime, we expect them to fully investigate these offences and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.

The Government is pleased to see the overall reduction in police-recorded hate crime in the year ending March 2023, including a 1% reduction in disability hate crime compared with the previous year. However, any instance is one too many and we remain absolutely committed to ensuring these offences are stamped out.

A person of restricted growth is not necessarily a disabled person. A disability hate crime is any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person’s disability or perceived disability, or any disability including physical disability, learning disability and mental health or developmental disorders. This will be a question of fact in each case.

Our absolute priority is to get more police onto our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. We delivered our commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by March 2023 and there are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, which is higher than the previous peak in March 2010 before the Police Uplift Programme.