Hate crimes recorded by police up by more than a quarter

More than two-thirds of all hate crimes reported were race-related

The number of hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales has risen by 26% - to 155,841 in the year to March 2022, Home Office figures show.

More than two-thirds - 109,843 - were racist hate crimes.

But crimes against transgender people saw the biggest rise, with 4,355 reports, up 56% from the previous year.

The Home Office said the overall rise could be due to better recording by police - and fewer had been recorded under Covid restrictions in 2020-21.

The rise in crimes against transgender people could also be because "transgender issues have been heavily discussed on social media over the last year", it said.

Hate crimes targeting people's sexual orientation also increased - by 42%, to 26,152.

A hate crime is an offence targeting a victim's race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability.

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Sometimes a person can be targeted for more than one of these at the same time - for example, someone attacked for being both Asian and Muslim or abused for being gay and transgender.

Most of the recorded crimes were violence against the person, public-order offences or criminal damage and arson.

Hate crimes motivated by religion also increased, with 8,730 reports - the highest number in 10 years - after two years of decreases.

About two-fifths of these targeted Muslims, while the second most commonly targeted religious group was Jewish people.

Welsh police forces alone recorded 6,295 hate crimes - up 35% to a new high for the nation.

'Speaks volumes'

Jabeer Butt, of the anti-racism charity the Race Equality Foundation, said: "Alarm bells should be ringing for anyone looking at these figures.

"The rise in all kinds of hate crime - with racially motivated hate crime being the highest - speaks volumes about attitudes towards minoritised people in England and Wales. There can be no room for this kind of behaviour in modern Britain."

Leni Morris, from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) anti-abuse charity Galop, said the rise in transphobic hate crimes was "staggering" but in line with an increase in people using its hate-crime support services.

"Some will try to say this increase is just showing that the LGBT+ community's trust in the police is improving - that this is not an increase in incidents but in people coming forward," she said.

"We strongly do not believe that to be the case. Demand for our hate-crime support services, including the National LGBT+ Hate Crime Helpline, has grown by 19% in just the last six months."