Politicians and charities have reacted with shock and anger after figures showed a sharp increase in racist and religious hate crimes in Nottingham. Home Office figures showed there were 1,006 offences committed in Nottinghamshire in the year ending March 2022 - a 17 per cent increase on 2021 and 11 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Nottinghamshire Police say the statistics show the public has become more willing to report these types of crimes. But Alex Norris, MP for Nottingham North, said it showed there was a need for more action.
“There’s no room in Nottingham for racism," the Labour MP said. "These increased rates of reporting clearly show the need for high-quality community policing and a community-wide commitment to anti-racism programmes in our schools.”
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Lillian Greenwood, MP for Nottingham South, said she was shocked and angered by the findings. "No one should have to deal with the alarm and distress, let alone the threat of violence," she said.
The hate crime figures are also the highest number on record and 75% higher than the 576 crimes recorded a decade ago in 2011-12. Last year’s crimes include 50 offences of racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury (up from 34 in 2020-21) and 100 crimes of assault without injury (up from 82).
There were also 115 offences of harassment (down from 117), and 22 crimes of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage (down from 28). But the majority of offences were crimes of causing racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress.
That could include shouting abuse at someone over their race or perceived religion, as well as pestering people in a way that is likely to cause upset or fear, or even simply rowdy behaviour with a racist element. Karen Aspley, of Nottingham Mencap's Smile! Stop Hate Crime Project, said the figures can be viewed in a number of different ways.
"All hate crime is wrong. In our view Nottingham needs to be a hate-free zone," she said. "All Nottingham citizens have the right to live their lives peacefully without suffering abuse or being targeted because they are different. these figures can be viewed in a number of different ways, although we want hate crime to go down we want hate crime reporting to go up. It is important that people know how to report and feel confident to do so."
Nadia Whittome, Labour MP for Nottingham East, criticised the Government for 'not leading by example', claiming it had failed to tackle racism in its ranks and 'whipping up a culture war against Black Lives Matter and creating an ever more hostile environment for refugees and migrant'. She added: "It is important that racism and religious discrimination is challenged at every level of our society."
Superintendent Sukesh Verma, Nottinghamshire Police’s strategic hate lead, said: “It’s clear that the willingness for the public to report these types of incidents has increased and that has been our objective over the past four years.
“We have opened new channels to contact us, including live-chat and our single online home website, which provide a swift and easy mechanism to report any incident as opposed to the traditional telephone call, and the public take up has been really pleasing. We are committed to ensuring the public receive an outstanding service and our satisfaction rates (82 per cent) demonstrate our commitment to tackling hate in all its forms."
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