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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for specific legislation to protect Gypsies, Roma and Travellers from hate crimes.

We have one of the strongest legislative frameworks in the world to protect communities from hostility, violence and bigotry, and to deal with the perpetrators of hate crime. Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are currently protected under these existing laws.

We asked the Law Commission to conduct a review into the coverage and approach of current hate crime legislation. We are grateful to the Law Commission for the detailed consideration it has given to its review of hate crime laws and we will consider its proposals carefully and respond to the recommendations in due course. We are also bringing forward legislation on our plans to tackle online harms – through the Online Safety Bill – which will set clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.

The Government will publish a new hate crime strategy in due course, which will include tackling racial hate crime, to help stamp out the abhorrent crimes that harm victims and their communities. We have sought views from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community representatives in the development of this new strategy.