WILTSHIRE has seen a four per cent rise in the number of racially and religiously aggravated offences in the last year.

That's according to the latest figures published by the Home Office.

The numbers are from police-recorded crime data for England and Wales and cover five types of offences, all of which have a specific racially or religiously motivated element defined by statute.

According to the Home Office, “these racially or religiously aggravated offences are by definition hate crimes”.

The five offences 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
  • Racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress

Of the 43 forces that did provide data, 33 reported a rise in racially and religiously aggravated offences from 2019 to 2020, while 30 forces saw numbers last year reach a new high.

The list reads, from left to right: name of police force; the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded in 2019; the number recorded in 2020; the percentage year-on-year change.

Avon & Somerset: 1,741; 1,936; 11 per cent.

Dorset: 325; 464; 43 per cent.

Hampshire: 1,471; 1,652; 12 per cent.

Wiltshire: 402; 419; 4 per cent.

Total: 57,825; 61,851; 7 per cent.

Here is an additional list showing the number of racially and religiously aggravated recorded by police forces in 2020 that were assigned the outcome “investigation complete – no suspect identified”.

The list reads, from left to right: name of police force; the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by police in 2020; the number of these recorded offences assigned the outcome “investigation complete – no suspect identified”; this number expressed as a percentage.

Avon & Somerset: 1,936; 299; 15 per cent.

Dorset: 464; 71; 15 per cent.

Wiltshire: 419; 81; 19

Supt David Minty said Wiltshire Police is dedicated to tackling hate crime of any kind.

He added: "Nobody should feel fear or be subjected to abuse, both in person or online, of any kind, but particularly based on their ethnicity or religious beliefs.

"The majority of our communities are incredibly accepting of people of all backgrounds, however, we will continue to act robustly in dealing with reports of hate crime.

"We, as a Force, have put a lot of effort into encouraging people to report hate incidents, while events across the world in the last 18 months have also raised awareness and understanding of racial and religious abuse as a crime."

If you are subjected to racial abuse or any other hate crime, the police encourage you to report it online.

You can find more information here, and you can also report hate crime by calling 101 or if you are in an emergency situation, 999.

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