Transgender hate crime in the UK

Briefing Notes – For MPs and Media – Transgender Hate Crime in the UK

Our briefing notes for MP’s and Media provide a concise summary of transgender hate crime in the UK.

Transgender Hate Crime in the UK -The Issue:

Over the last decade, hate crimes against the trans community have risen dramatically⁸. In the year ending March 2023 a total of 4732 transgender hate crimes were recorded⁹. Many think the dramatic increase is due to Conservative media driving a culture war against the trans community. Indeed, if we look at the Daily Mail, for example, in January 2013, they published just six trans-related articles; however, ten years later, in 2023, that had rocketed to one hundred and fifteen, the vast majority with harmful content. In the last year, The Telegraph has produced over 800 trans-hostile articles.

How levels of hate crime have changed since 2012

Daily Mail articles related to transgender people

Transgender Hate Crime in the UK – Key Points:

Hate crime is defined by Criminal Prosecution Service¹ as “Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person’s disability or perceived disability; or race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity.”
The Law Commission² states, “There is evidence that crimes motivated by hostility towards a personal characteristic, or offenders who demonstrate such hostility, cause additional harm to individual victims of these crimes, create fear and anxiety amongst members of the targeted community.
This is borne out by a survey of people with transgender identity in 2021 by GALOP³, a UK LGBT anti-violence charity, that showed:
- 64% of respondents had experienced anti-LGBT violence or abuse
- 92% had experienced verbal abuse
- 29% had been subjected to physical violence
- 17% had experienced sexual violence
- 94% were negatively impacted by their experiences of anti-LGBT+ violence and abuse
- Only 21% who wanted support could access it
- Only 13% reported their experiences to the police
- Of those who reported to the police, only 46% were satisfied with the police response
There is no value in stating in this document official Government or Police statistics on transgender hate crime, because only 13% of incidents are reported, making official statistics unreflective of the actual level of hate crime, and therefore meaningless.
The effect of these sad statistics is not only felt by the transgender individual and their community but by society as a whole. The annual cost of poor mental health to the nation has been estimated by the Centre for Mental Health⁴ as over £300bn, and therefore, there is a direct financial correlation to reducing hate crime.
Following the publication of the MacPherson Report into the death of Stephen Lawrence, a Hate Crime Independent Advisory Group (IAG)⁵, consisting of experts in various aspects of hate crime, was set up and gave direct advice to the Government. Still, the Conservative Government severed ties with the Group. It still exists and provides hate crime advice to the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC). It has also produced a manifesto document for the forthcoming election.
The Conservative Government produced a Hate Crime Action Plan⁶, suggesting they took hate crime seriously and intended to implement measures to counter hate crime. Still, the strategy was shelved after the IAG overseeing the Action Plan highlighted failures in delivering its objectives.
As part of this Action Plan, the Law Commission was tasked to provide up-to-date legal analysis of hate crime law and produced several comprehensive reports⁷, but again, the Government has failed to respond. Both reports recommended parity in legal protection across Hate Crime strands.

Transgender Hate Crime in the UK – Recommendations:

Substantial and significant analysis and comprehensive reports and action plans have already been produced by the government, and academic and legal institutions. Therefore, there is no need to commission further studies, which will inevitably take years to complete.
Instead, it is recommended that the manifesto requests of the IAG are implemented, as summarised below (and slightly modified to focus on transgender hate crime), and through the subsequent actions the major recommendations of the Government Hate Crime Action Plan and Law Commission Reports will therefore also be implemented:
- Establishment of a cross-government Hate Crime Programme.
- Establish a single cross-government lead for Hate Crimes.
- Establish an independent cross-government Advisory Group.
- Commitment to produce a Hate Crime Strategy within 6 months of being in government.
- To respond to the 2021 Law Commission Report within 6 months of being in government.
- Add misogyny or sex/gender-based hate crime to hate crime legislation and policy.
- Agree on a framework for out-of-court disposals for hate crimes.
- Review and refresh the Home Secretary’s Code on Non-Crime Hate Incidents as soon as possible.
- Require UK Police to have nominated hate crime officers to link to affected communities.
- Agree on a definition of transphobia (trans prejudice) as a matter of urgency.
- Ensure effective and meaningful support to victims of Hate crime.
Critically these recommendations will not require additional resources as the resultant fall in offending behaviour will lead to a nett saving.
Working with the NPCC and the CPS, the IAG has completed several audits in police forces to understand the reasons why prosecution rates for Hate Crime were falling when the number of crimes and reports to police were increasing. The results of these audits have been illuminating. It would be instructive to use the methodology developed for these audits to examine the handling of transgender hate crimes thematically. This would be key in re-establishing confidence in the Criminal Justice System.