Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle hate crime in Solihull constituency.

The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable. We have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity and expect the police to fully investigate these abhorrent offences and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.

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. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – that is why we have the highest number of police officers on record in England and Wales. Funding for West Midlands Police will be up to £789.4 million for 2024/25, an increase of up to £50 million when compared to 2023/24. As of 31 March 2023, West Midlands Force recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. The deployment of all officers is an operational decision for Chief Constables.

The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also continue to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime. The Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these despicable offences.