Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-semitic attacks (a) in Greater Manchester and (b) across the UK.

The Government committed to reduce the harm caused by hate crime, including antisemitic crime, in Challenge it, Report it, Stop it: The Government’s Plan to Tackle Hate Crime published in 2012 and refreshed in May 2014. Since 2010 this Government has done more than ever to tackle antisemitism and antisemitic attacks.

The Department for Communities and Local Government hosts the Antisemitism Working Group which brings community representatives together with officials from across Government to ensure a coordinated response to emerging challenges, whether they are domestic, online or international. The Department also partially funds the Cross-Government Hate Crime Programme which leads on a broad range of activities including the development of 'True Vision' an online facility to provide information to victims and practitioners and to allow anyone to report hate crime online.

The Department works closely with the Community Security Trust, the police and the Home Office to tackle antisemitic incidents. For example, in the wake of the recent desecration of Jewish graves in Blackley in Greater Manchester, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government wrote to the CEO of the Community Security Trust, an organisation that looks after the security needs of the Jewish community, expressing his sadness at the desecration and offering support.

To ensure we remember the Holocaust, and keep the memory of those lost alive, the Department also supports the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission.