Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to tackle the recorded increase in disability hate crime in the last year.

The Government takes all forms of hate crime seriously. Crime that is motivated by hostility towards some fundamental part of a person’s identity is particularly corrosive and can have devastating consequences for victims and their families. We are committed to working with communities in order to keep them safe.

The number of recorded disability hate crimes rose by 44% between 2014/15 and 2015/16. There are a number of factors behind this rise, including increased reporting of disability hate crime and improved recording of such crimes by the police. We welcome these changes.

The new cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan published on 26 July includes specific actions on disability hate crime. These include looking at current best practice in tackling disability hate crime and working with partner organisations and the police to promote safety for disabled people, making better use of third party reporting centres and raising awareness of hate crime among carers and families of disabled people to encourage reporting.