Race and religious hate crime in England and Wales hits record high

Hate crime in England and Wales has increased by 7% - with record highs in those that were racially and religiously motivated.

A total of 146,825 hate crimes were recorded by police in the two nations in the year to March 2026, according to Home Office data.

Religious hate crime rose by 13% from 10,067 to 11,419 offences, while race hate crimes once again made up the majority, at 107,926 offences, which was an increase of 9% from 98,890 the previous year.

When figures for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) were excluded because of a change in their crime recording system, both race and religious hate crimes were the highest on record.

Overall, excluding the Met, there were 123,957 hate crimes recorded in total, a rise of 7% from 116,000 the previous year.

Excluding the MPS, there were 8,214 religious hate crime offences recorded in the 12 months to March - the highest annual total since records began in the year ending March 2012.

There were 90,378 race hate crime offences recorded excluding the Met, which was also a record high since 2012.

Religious hate crimes targeting Muslims surged by 15% from 4,479 to 5,132, while crimes against Jews rose by 10% year-on-year from 2,874 to 3,162.

Sharp jumps in offences against Muslims occurred in September 2025, which the Home Office said coincided with protests and public disorder, and then in March following the US going to war with Iran.

Not counting Met data, hate crimes against Muslims rose to 3,660, which is their highest annual level since this data was first collected in the year to March 2018.

Meanwhile, the government-funded British Muslim Trust (BMT) said it has tracked and verified 78 attacks and incidents at Muslim places of worship in the 12 months to July, including vandalism and intimidation.

In its report published on Thursday, the trust said this averages around one attack every five days in the UK and Channel Islands.

The latest Home Office data covers the period when Peacehaven Mosque in East Sussex was subject to an arson attack in October 2025 and an incident where bacon was left at a mosque in Bristol during Friday prayers in the first week of Ramadan in February.

BMT chief executive Akeela Ahmed said: "The rising tide of hatred in this country requires a whole society response.

"Politicians and those with the loudest voices need to take greater care in what they say, social media platforms have to do more to tackle hate, the authorities must act quickly and decisively, and the rest of us must rebuild the social norms that make clear any form of hatred and prejudice is not acceptable and it is not British."

Hate crimes against Jewish people were, when data from the Met was excluded, at their second highest level on record.

There were 2,003 offences, not counting the Met, which was just below the 2,093 record high in the year ending March 2024 - which covered the months after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and subsequent war in Gaza.

The Home Office said hate crimes against Jewish people spiked in October 2025 "following a series of antisemitic crimes after the Heaton Park Synagogue terror attack and have been at an elevated level since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict".

Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed when Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, drove into the gates of the Heaton Park Synagogue on 2 October 2025, and began attacking with a knife while wearing a fake suicide belt.

A series of antisemitic attacks followed in the months after, including in March this year when four Jewish community ambulances were torched in Golders Green.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors antisemitism and publishes its own data on attacks, said the figures "show that antisemitic hate crime remains at an unacceptably high level".

(c) Sky News 2026: Race and religious hate crime in England and Wales hits record high