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Embargoed: Plans to tackle hate crime and better support victims

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 13 September 2009

Embargoed until 00:01 on Monday 14 September 2009

New measures to support victims of hate crime, bring more perpetrators to justice and increase reporting of these crimes were outlined today by the government.

The Hate Crime Action Plan sets out government work to address all forms of hate crime with an emphasis on preventing these crimes from occurring or escalating in seriousness.

The plan sets out how local organisations like the police and councils will get new advice on the best ways to deal with hate crime. This includes new guidance on preventing hate crime and a training toolkit for crime reduction bodies to improve the identification of and support for vulnerable witnesses.

It also sets out work to better tackle hate crime by boosting victims' confidence in the justice system to help to increase reporting of these crimes.

The work includes:

* new standards for police in the investigation and recording of hate crime;

* encouraging the take up of special measures to help support vulnerable and intimidated witnesses give effective evidence in court; and

* additional help for probation staff to improve the management of hate crime offenders.

Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said:

"Hate crime ruins people's lives and the government is determined to tackle it in all its forms. People should be free to express their identities without fear of harassment and crime simply because of who they are.

"The Hate Crime Action Plan will help ensure our response to these intolerable crimes is as effective as possible and create an environment that will give victims more confidence to report these crimes, knowing they will be taken seriously and acted on."

Drew Harris, Assistant Chief Constable of PSNI and ACPO lead on hate crime, said:

"Hate crime is unacceptable in any civilised society and the police are committed to reduce the harm it causes, to victims, their families and to the broader community.

"We know that many hate crimes still go unreported and it is essential that victims have both the confidence and the opportunity to report such crimes, either directly to the police or through a third party. A full understanding of the nature and extent of the problem will allow us and our partners to help protect people from the harm caused by hate crime.

"We have been involved in the creation of this cross-governmental plan because we realise that the police service cannot succeed in isolation. There is a need for local and national agencies to cooperate in order to reduce the harm hate crime causes to victims and communities. This action plan will help focus the attention of all agencies on the response to hate crime but, vitally it will also oversee work to minimise the bigotry that fuels such crimes. It is far better that we prevent hate crimes from occurring but when they do we must be ready to respond effectively."

Rose Simkins, Chief Executive of Stop Hate UK, said:

"Stop Hate UK welcomes the government's work to address all kinds of hate crime. A good deal has been achieved in recent years, but this plan acknowledges there is still work to be done to help victims to report hate crime and receive support, and to bring more offenders to justice.

"We all need to take responsibility for reporting hate crimes and incidents that we experience or witness, and not allow them to go ignored and unnoticed."

Today the Minister visited Age Concern in Camden which will be receive a grant of £23,000 from the £310,000 made available from the Victims' Fund by the Home Office to charities working to prevent hate crime.

During the visit, the minister announced ten third sector organisations which had been successful in their bids to the Victims' Fund to run projects to provide specialist support to hate crime victims.

The minister added:

"I am pleased to be here in Camden to see how the money from the hate crime section of our Victims' Fund is helping to improve people's lives."

Nick Maxwell, LGBT development co-ordinator at Age Concern Camden, said:

"We are so pleased to be receiving funding from the Victims' Fund. Older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (OLGBT) people have lived much of their lives in less liberal times, hiding their sexuality purely as means of survival, suffering daily prejudice and hostility.

"Though attitudes have changed considerably, we still have a long way to go in some areas. The money from the Hate Crime fund to Age Concern Camden's Opening Doors Central London project will go a long way to help our older LGBT communities to come forward and access support they might need in confidence, and to look forward to growing older, with dignity, and no longer have to hide who they are."

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. An electronic copy of the Hate Crime Action Plan is available from the Home Office press office on 020 7035 3535.

2. The Victims' Fund has been providing grants to third sector organisations that support victims since 2004. The charities receiving from the Hate Crime section of the Victims' Fund in 2008/09 are:

GIRES Transgender £10,110
Community Security Trust Race/Religion £54,354
North Herts People First Disability £17,788
Voice UK Disability £50,425
Torfaen People First Disability £29,064
Stop Hate UK General/Race £71,600
Redbridge Equalities Council Race £24,038
Stonewall Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual £25,000
Royal Mencap Kirklees Disability £4,000
Age Concern Camden Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual £23,000

3. The prevalence of hate crime is difficult to establish as it is often under-reported. Figures from the British Crime Survey suggest there were 207,000 racially motivated crimes in 2007/08. A survey by gay charity Stonewall found that one in eight lesbian, gay and bisexual people had experienced a homophobic hate incident in the preceding year. Stonewall estimated this to be equivalent to 450,000 people. Disability charity Mencap found that 88 per cent of people with learning disabilities had been a victim of a disability hate incident or disability hate crime in the preceding year.

4. For more information about the work at Camden's Age Concern please contact Clare O'Driscoll on 020 7837 3777.

5. For more information call the Home Office Press Office on 020 7035 3535.

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Contacts:

Home Office Press Office
Phone: 020 7035 3535
NDS.HO@coi.gsi.gov.uk