Racially or religiously-aggravated offences recorded by Greater Manchester Police increased by more than a third over 12 months, new figures reveal. And the statistics show nationally, offences hit a fresh high in 2021, with reaction to England's defeat to Italy in the final of the Euros football championship said to have contributed to the rise.
Police made a number of arrests in the weeks following the final, after abusive posts on social media targeted England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, all of whom missed penalties.
One football fan who live-streamed himself on Facebook racially abusing the players was later handed a 10-week prison sentence, while another received a six-week sentence for racially abusing Rashford on Twitter.
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According to the Home Office, five racially or religiously aggravated offences are by definition hate crimes. They are racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury; racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury, racially or religiously aggravated harassment, racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage and racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress.
Of the 44 forces in England and Wales, 39 reported a rise in offences from 2020 to 2021, while 34 forces saw numbers last year reach a new high.
In Greater Manchester, 4,724 offences were recorded in 2020, compared to 6,431 last year. That equates to a 36 per cent year-on-year rise. The easing of Covid-19 restrictions was another factor named by forces as having led to the rise in offences, along with improved recording of hate crimes.
A total of 76,884 racially and religiously aggravated offences were recorded in 2021, up 15 per cent from 66,742 in 2020. The number of offences has been on an upwards trend since 2013, the first calendar year for which comparable data is available. But this is the biggest percentage jump since 2017, which saw a 16 per cent rise in offences fuelled by reaction to terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.
Independent charity Victim Support said the figures for 2021 were 'seriously concerning' and fit a pattern for 'spikes in hate crime linked to world events', while the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that 'more still needs to be done to improve the quality of support for victims', including 'effective hate crime training' for police forces.
The Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of the offences last year (15,394, up 2 per cent from 15,156 in 2020) followed by West Midlands (8,019, up 57 per cent from 5,117). Greater Manchester Police came in third nationally.
Superintendent Rick Jackson, Greater Manchester Police's hate crime lead, said the number of incidents during lockdown were 'unprecedently low, so it was to be expected that there would be an increase' once restrictions were lifted, and that it was 'encouraging that members of our communities have the trust and confidence in Greater Manchester Police to report hate crime'.
He said: “It is encouraging that members of our communities have the trust and confidence in Greater Manchester Police to report hate crime.
“Reporting is one of the key components of our fight against this type of crime and our work to prevent and reduce it, ultimately to keep people safe and to care for victims.
“It is worth noting that during lockdown the number of incidents were unprecedently low so it was to be expected that there would be an increase. That being said, we are running several initiatives, based on consultation with community figures and feedback from members of the public, to ensure we provide outstanding service.
“One such initiative is the partnership between officers in South Manchester and the British Muslim Heritage Centre, which has become a third party reporting centre focussed on engaging those who have never reported what has happened to them for various reasons, including but not limited to language barriers or cultural differences.
“I would like to use this opportunity to encourage victims of hate crime to report them to police or one of our partner agencies.”
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), meanwhile, said all forms of hate crime were 'completely unacceptable – police will take, and do take, all reports seriously and we will do everything we can to investigate'.
The analysis was compiled by the Press Association news agency from data published by the Home Office. West Midlands and Greater Manchester police forces also saw two of the largest year-on-year percentage increases, along with Gloucestershire (up 45 per cent from 384 to 556) and Cleveland (up 34 per cent from 631 to 843).
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force saw 'several spikes' in reported hate crimes last year that were influenced by 'high profile events', including a 'sharp rise following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions'.
"We take reports of hate crime seriously and record all instances, whether they pass the threshold to be classified as a crime or not," the spokesperson added.
The UK went back into lockdown at the beginning of last year due to the second wave of Covid-19 infections, with tight restrictions on travel, socialising and leisure activities. The analysis shows that January to March 2021 saw 13,899 racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded by forces in England and Wales, the lowest number for any quarter since the first three months of 2018.
But this was followed by a sharp jump to 21,239 offences in April to June, coinciding with the gradual lifting of Covid restrictions, before rising even higher in July-September (22,556) followed by slight drop in October-December (19,190). The period July to September also coincided with the end of the Euro football championships, which saw England lose the final on July 11 in a penalty shootout with Italy.
Diana Fawcett, chief executive at Victim Support, said the figures reflect what the charity has been seeing in recent years, in particular an 11 per cent increase in 2021 in its own recorded cases of hate crime, nearly three-quarters of which involved abuse based on race and religion.
"We consistently see spikes in hate crime linked to world events – for example, following the Euros finals last summer – so this could be one reason for the rise," she said. This trend is seriously concerning – no person or community should be targeted because of who they are." Only five forces in England and Wales saw a fall in these offences in 2021: Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Wiltshire.
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