Disability hate crimes in England and Wales have surged by a third over the last year according to disturbing new police figures obtained by the charity United Response.
Thirty-two of the 43 police forces which responded to a Freedom of Information request from United Response recorded a total of 5,342 disability hate crimes in 2017-18 – a dramatic 33% rise on the 4,005 offences from the previous year.
The figures were obtained ahead of this year’s National Hate Crime Awareness Week, which runs until Saturday 20 October.
Three-quarters of the 32 police forces which provided FOI data saw increases in disability hate crimes.
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See also Police and prosecutors still failing disabled people on hate crime