Hate crime surged in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the second half of July – nearly a month after the EU referendum vote – and still remains at significantly higher levels than a year ago.

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The latest set of figures quietly released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council on Wednesday show a 49% rise in incidents to 1,863 in the last week in July when compared with the previous year. The week after saw a record 58% increase in recorded incidents to 1,787.

Jack Dromey, who was Labour’s shadow police minister for three years, said: “Many victims are still afraid to come forward and so the scale of attacks could be far higher than what is being reported. The UN said two weeks ago that the problem of underreporting hate crime persists in Britain and the government’s own hate-crime strategy sets out to increase the reporting of hate crime, acknowledging one of the biggest challenges to the police in tackling it,” he said.

Previously published official figures had revealed that there had been a 46% spike – then the worst on record – in reports of hate crime to the police in the week immediately after the 23 June referendum. But the latest data shows that the increase in hate crime has continued, although the level of increase has dipped.

The most recent weekly data shows that the level of hate crime is 16% higher than over a similar period last year, with 1,384 incidents reported in the third week of August, the last set of figures available.



But despite the increases, police chiefs say they no longer want to collate weekly figures, arguing that the reduction in the level of increase means that is no longer justified.

Mark Hamilton, the NPCC lead for hate crime, said that the reductions in the rate of increase meant they were no longer going to require weekly updates from police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“We have seen continued decreases in reports of hate crimes to forces and these reports have now returned to formerly seen levels for 2016. For this reason, we will return to our previous reporting procedures and will no longer be requiring weekly updates from forces,” he said.

“This doesn’t mean that hate crime is no longer a priority. We know that divisions still exist in our society and that tensions could rise again. Police forces will continue with their robust response and we will react swiftly to any future signs of tension.”

The disclosure comes in a week when senior Polish ministers travelled to Britain to seek reassurances about the safety of the Polish community in the UK in the aftermath of the fatal attack on Arkadiusz Jóźwik in Harlow, Essex. A silent vigil and march was held in Harlow at the weekend.

Dromey said it was not yet the right time for the police to decide to stop collecting weekly figures. “The national rate of reported hate crimes remains higher than at this point last year and the high-profile attacks in Harlow show that there is still a deeply worrying trend of abuse and violence.”

The police linked the spike in hate crime incidents immediately after the June referendum directly to the vote, saying people had taken the vote to leave the EU as a licence to behave in a racist or discriminatory way. Offences had been mainly harassment and threats of a racist nature against “visible minorities” as well as people from eastern Europe.

Amber Rudd, the home secretary, went further when she discussed the figures with MPs on the home affairs select committee on Wednesday, saying that the level was back in line with 2015.

“There was a spike in crime after 23 June. I am pleased to say it has now gone back to levels comparable to last year. We are watching it carefully. We will continue to combat hate crime however we can,” she told MPs.



Dromey said: “Putting race and immigration centre-stage in the referendum campaign in the way that politicians did resulted in a tide of abuse. Immigration will be a dominant issue in the debate on where Britain goes post-Brexit and so we will need a continued focus on the impact this is having in communities.”





