FOI 649/26

Request

As a freedom of information request, please provide:

• For each month from January 2019 up until the most recent available at the point of production, the number of hate crimes recorded, split by strand (such as: Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Disability, Transgender Identity)

• For each month from January 2019 up until the most recent available at the point of production, the number of religious hate crimes recorded, split by perceived religion of the victim

• For each month from January 2019 up until the most recent available at the point of production, the number of religious hate crimes recorded, split by perceived religion of the victim and offence group (such as: Criminal damage and arson,Drug offences, Miscellaneous crimes against society, Possession of weapons offences, Public order offences, Robbery, Sexual offences, Theft offences, Violence against the person)

If figures are not available from January 2019, please instead provide them from the closest available month.

Response

We have conducted a search on our crime and incident recording system (NICHE RMS) for all hate crimes recorded between 01/01/2019 and 05/05/2026.

The results of this search are as follows:

Question 1

Please see the document entitled, “Response data 649_26” which provides a breakdown of the number of hate crimes, split by strand.

Question 2

As per above, please see document entitled, “Response data 649_26” which provides a breakdown of the number of religious hate crimes recorded, split by the perceived religion of the victim.

Please note, the individual breakdowns will not equal the total number of religiously aggravated hate crimes. This is because multiple perceived religions could be recorded for a single occurrence as a single occurrence could have multiple victims of differing religious beliefs.

Question 3

As per above, please document entitled, “Response data 649_26” which provides a breakdown of the number of religious hate crimes recorded, split by the perceived religion of the victim, as well as the offence type committed against them.

Please note, the individual breakdowns will not equal the total number of religiously aggravated hate crimes. This is because multiple perceived religions could be recorded for a single occurrence as a single occurrence could have multiple victims of differing religious beliefs.

South Wales Police recognise that hate incidents and crimes, where people are targeted because of the nature of their diversity, affect not only the primary victim but also their families and the wider community.  Crimes motivated by “hate” emphasise feelings of difference rather than focusing on what is shared in common, breeding suspicion, mistrust, alienation and fear and are often perpetrated against victims who are particularly vulnerable due to their individual circumstances.    

The responsibility to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of hate crimes is a priority for South Wales Police and we are committed to taking a caring and proactive approach when responding to the needs of victims and investigating hate crimes. We believe this caring and responsive policing style is essential in helping raise the confidence levels of often vulnerable individuals and building overall public satisfaction and trust of the police within minority communities.    

South Wales Police recognise the need for the care of victims to be delivered in the most professional manner and that the level of support provided must be appropriate to the needs of each individual victim.  All necessary measures are taken to provide immediate practical help and ongoing reassurance to victims as South Wales Police strives to be the best at understanding and responding to our communities’ needs.   

The Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner have set a priority for increasing the confidence of victims to report incidents of hate crime and for action taken by the police and their partners to reduce repetition of hate crime.