Preliminary report on our national hate crime freedom of information research project.
London pilot project
During the summer of 2016 we conducted our first Freedom of Information enquiry to councils across London. We had responses from 28 of the 33 London Boroughs including the City of London.
- 69% of boroughs stated they do not have separate action plans for responding to hate crimes.
- 34% of boroughs stated they do not explicitly include hate crime in their community safety plans at all.
- 79% of boroughs do not have designated hate crime prevention officers, or similar roles.
- 28% of boroughs do not facilitate hate crime reporting, and 17% do not have any information about hate crime reporting on their websites.
- 69% of boroughs do not facilitate direct hate crime advocacy to individual s affected by hate crime.
- 6 boroughs do not redirect or refer people affected by hate crime to external advocates
- 11 stated that they are engaging with community based and voluntary organisations through hate crime forums or similar events.
Following the success of this initial piece of research, in the summer of 2017 we submitted Freedom of Information requests to every council across the UK – asking them eight sets of questions about eight areas of their work relating to hate crime.
This included; hate crime policy, staffing, reporting, resources, advocacy, funding, working with communities and participation in NCHAW.
UK hate crime freedom of information report 2017
We had responses from 384 of 402 councils across the UK (a 95.5% response rate).
These were then added to a spreadsheet by our volunteers using a Google Form that we had set up.
Hate crime policy
1a Is hate crime included in the council’s community safety plan?
236 61.46% councils state that include hate crime in their community safety plans.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28938566-1a-hate-crime-policy
1c Does the council have a separate hate crime policy?
77 20.05% of councils state that they have separate hate crime policies.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28938573-1c-hate-crime-policy
We asked for copies of council hate crime policies so that we can review them to identify key themes and best practice. This will be included in our next report.
Hate crime staff
2a Does the council have a designated hate crime lead/team?
200 51.81% of councils state they have a designated hate crime lead/team.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28938907-2a-hate-crime-staff
2c Does the council employ designated hate crime officers?
54 14.10% of councils state they have designated hate crime officers.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28939227-2c-hate-crime-staff
Hate crime reporting
3a Does the council facilitate hate crime reporting?
310 80.73% of councils state they facilitate hate crime reporting.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28939434-3a-hate-crime-reporting
We also asked what hate crime reporting methods the councils supported. This will be included in our next report.
Hate crime resources
4a Does the council have designated hate crime pages on it’s website?
235 61.20% of councils state they have designated hate crime pages on their websites.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28939963-4a-hate-crime-resources
Using this information we have started to build a Google Map to show all the council websites across the UK. Green indicates they have hate crime information page, Red indicates they don’t.
We have designed the map so that if you click on any of the markers it will show the relevant information for that council.
It will also show:
- link to list a of UK police websites.
- link to http://www.report-it.org.uk True Vision website.
- link to the relevant victim support organisation.
- link to our http://www.nationalhcaw.uk website.
4c Does the council produce it’s own hate crime resources?
129 33.49% of councils state they produce their own hate crime resources.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28940165-4c-hate-crime-resources
Hate crime advocacy
5a Does the council provide direct hate crime advocacy services?
52 13.54% of councils state they provide direct hate crime advocacy services.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28940503-5a-hate-crime-advocacy
5c Does the council refer people to external advocacy services?
229 59.64% councils state they refer people to external hate crime advocacy services.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28940763-5c-hate-crime-advocacy
Hate crime funding
We asked how much funding councils provided for hate crime in the past three years; 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18. Once we have analysed the responses this will be included in our next report.
Hate crime forums
7a Does the council facilitate a hate crime forum?
195 50.78% of councils state they facilitate hate crime forums.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28941061-7a-hate-crime-communities
NHCAW
8a Is the council taking part in NHCAW 2017?
209 54.43% of councils across the UK stated that they were taking part in NHCAW in 2017.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28941276-8a-nhcaw
8c Which years has the council taken part in NHCAW?
79 councils stated that they took part in 2012, this increased to 83 councils in 2013, 112 councils in 2014, 141 councils in 2015, 162 councils in 2016 and 211* councils in 2017.
* note that figures for the London region were not available between 2012 to 2016.
Piktochart: https://create.piktochart.com/output/28941738-8c-nhcaw
