Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many attacks involving a corrosive substance were treated as a hate crime in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.

The Home Office collects information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police. Information is not held on how many of these hate crimes involved a corrosive substance.

Information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police is published on an annual basis in the statistical bulletin Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2015/16, available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2015-to-2016

This Government is committed to tackling hate crime. The UK has a strong legislative framework to tackle hate crime. We are working across Government with police, (including National Community Tensions Team), the Crown Prosecution Service and community partners to send out a clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated and we will vigorously pursue and prosecute those who commit these crimes.

We have also announced a cross Government action plan to tackle the use of acid and other corrosives in violent attacks which includes improving police recording and reporting of offences.