Homophobia

(asked on 21st November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce homophobic hate crime; and if she will make a statement.


Answered by
Baroness Featherstone Portrait
Baroness Featherstone
This question was answered on 1st December 2014

All forms of hate crime are deplorable and it is important that victims are protected and have the confidence to come forward. In May, we published our refreshed cross-Government hate crime action plan—Challenge it, Report it, Stop it, setting out the progress we have made and further steps we will take to address the issue. The government is driving forward work to tackle homophobic hostility and hate crime. We have toughened up sentencing and are working closely with the police and other agencies to increase reporting, improve support and prevent these terrible crimes happening in the first place.


As part of the government’s action plan to tackle homophobia, we are working alongside the Equality and Human Rights Commission on a project to improve the reporting and criminal justice outcomes of victims of hate crime from lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities.

The Home Office does not hold information specifically on homophobic crimes – we have information on hate crimes based on sexual orientation but cannot break this down – it may also include crimes against heterosexuals (and perceived heterosexuals). The Home Office only receives recorded hate crime data at the police force area level and only holds data for the last three years. This data can be found in the table below.

A breakdown of statistics by force area can be found at the following links:2011/12 data in Table 2.01
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/265928/hate-crime-2013-apptabs.xls
2012/13 and 2013/14 data in Tables 1.01 and 1.02 respectively
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364201/hosb0214-tabs.ods

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