The number of cases of hate crime that have resulted in a criminal charge in London has dropped over the last three years, new data uncovered by the Liberal Democrats shows.

The data shows that the percentage of cases resulting in a charge has dropped overall and across every single individual category of hate crime including homophobia, transphobia, racism, disability hate crime, antisemitism and islamophobia.

The data shows that despite a 20 per cent surge in hate crimes reported to the police across the Capital in the last five years (rising from 20,724 to 24,869), the number of charges from the Met has dropped by 9 per cent in the last five years, and by a staggering 37 per cent in the last three years.

Overall, 8 per cent of reported hate crimes in 2023 resulted in a charge, compared to 12.7 per cent three years earlier.

The charge rate for homophobia decreased from 13.2 per cent to 10.8 per cent in the same period while the rate for racist and religious hate crimes dropped from 13.3 per cent to 8 per cent.

The charge rate for disability hate crimes reached its lowest level since 2018 with just 1.2 per cent of cases resulting in a charge.

The Liberal Democrats have urged the Mayor of London to do more to ensure that the Met tackles hate crime and treats it as a priority and have also called on the UK Government to do more at a national level to tackle the issue, stating that divisive language over recent times has often enflamed hate crime rather than helped to tackle it.

Commenting Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member & Police and Crime Spokesperson Caroline Pidgeon said:

“Hate crime is a serious crime. Its impact leaves victims traumatised and feeling unsafe simply for being who they are.

“It is extremely worrying that not only has the number of incidents of hate crime surged in recent years but simultaneously the number of charges by the Met across London has actually fallen.

“We need the Met, the Mayor of London and the UK Government to work together to tackle this issue. London is and should always be an open and welcoming city for everyone, no matter your background.

“The Conservative Government has implemented brutal cuts to London’s police since 2015, with the number of PCSOs on London’s streets having fallen by 32 per cent. We need to see more bobbies back on the beat to deter this sort of crime.

“But we also need to see some high-level prosecutions demonstrating that hate crime, whatever form it takes, is never acceptable. The current data we have unveiled shows that far too few crimes are resulting in a charge, with the situation likely to be even worse in reality than even this data suggests given many people do not report hate crimes to the police due to a lack of faith in the service to act on the report.”