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Select Committee on Religious Offences in England and Wales Minutes of Evidence

Supplementary memorandum from the Home Office (4)

Page 26 [paragraph 72 of transcript]: examples of religious hatred

— Windows smashed at Glasgow's Central Mosque. Edinburgh mosque firebombed. Reports of many other attacks on mosques

— Pigs' heads left outside mosques in Essex and Devon

— Banners left at mosque reading "The blood of the American people is on the hands of every Muslim"

— Afghan taxi driver paralysed by assault—attackers referred to 11 September

— Man in Exeter told Muslim he blamed Islam for events of 11 September—convicted of religiously-aggravated threatening behaviour

— Attacks on Muslim women for wearing hijab

— Belief that followers of Islam are intent on world domination

Page 29 [paragraph 84 of transcript]: statistics of religiously aggravated offences

Please see Annex A to this note

Page 31 [paragraph 90 of transcript]: inflammatory material made available to the Home Office by the Internet Watch Foundation

Since November 2001 the IWF has forwarded to the Home Office 21 examples of internet websites containing racially inflammatory material. Website addresses are as follows:

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/suralikeit/original/index.shtml

http://www.nazi.org

http://www.ummah.net/unity/palestine/page10.htm

http://www.nottinghillnews.com

http://www.Seanbryson.freeuk.com

http://www.micetrap.net

http://bloodandhonour.hit.bg/

http://www.bnp.org.uk/

http://www.islamic-truth.fsnet.co.uk/

http://www.resistance.com/ethniccleansing/

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/friendsReunited.ASP?WCI=MemoryBoard&bb

http://www.ety.com/HRP/letters/180901a.htm/

http://www.ety.com/HRP.JewishStudies/jstudyindex.htm

http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-isreal.html

http://www.redwatch.org

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/a14-3.html

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/finalconflict/fcrevb103.html

http://www.rentaslave.co.uk

http://www.almuhajiroun.com/index.php

http://www.heretical.org/British/zvscrime.html

http://www.heretical.org/British/zvsgaol.html

http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=2314811

http://www.theloyalist.fsnet.co.uk/edge.htm

http://www.maboline.net

Page 32 [paragraph 95 of transcript]: racist material disguised as religious comment

The CPS have handled a number of cases of Muslim v Sikh religious animosity. There is also evidence of religious hostility between other Asian or Middle Eastern minorities. In these cases the element of religion (for example, Sikhs inciting hatred against Muslims) can be a hook on which a bundle of racial/historical/political animosities is hung.

We will keep looking for further examples.

Your email of 11 July: how many prosecutions, and success rate, resulted from racist incidents listed in columns 705W and 706W of Commons Hansard for 24 May 2002

At Annex B is a table which shows the number of recorded racially aggravated offences, detection rates and prosecutions and cautions. In 1999-2000 in England and Wales there were 45 recorded racially aggravated offences per 100 racist incidents; and a detection rate for these offences of 34.5 per cent. The rate of prosecutions and cautions per 100 detected racially aggravated offences was 56.

In 1999-2000 the percentage of prosecutions involving a racist incident which resulted in guilty pleas or findings of guilt was 78.5 per cent. This rose to 83 per cent in 2000-2001.

7 October 2002.

Annex A

STATISTICS OF PERSONS PROCEEDED AGAINST FOR RELIGIOUSLY (OR RACIALLY AND RELIGIOUSLY) AGGRAVATED OFFENCES—ENGLAND AND WALES (PROVISIONAL)

Note: the following statistics are very provisional. They cover all returns made by the end of August (most of first quarter of 2002 for magistrates' courts and most of the first and second quarters of 2002 for Crown Courts).

HO code Offence description Persons proceeded against

8/42 Religiously aggravated common assault 1

8/43 Religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress 1

58/2 Religiously aggravated other criminal damage 4

66/10 Religiously aggravated fear or provocation of violence 2

125/61 Religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress 2

8/47 Racially or religiously aggravated ABH 3

8/49 Racially or religiously aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress 2

66/16 Racially or religiously aggravated fear or provocation of violence 3

125/63 Racially or Religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress 1

TOTAL 19

Source: Home Office

Annex B

Table D2: The flow of cases through the Criminal Justice system 1999-2000: by police force*

Force	Racist incidents 1998-99**	Racists incidents 1999-00	RAOs recorded 1999-00	Recorded RAOs per 100 Racist incidents	RAOs detected 1999-00	RAO Detection rate (%)	RAO Prosecutions and cautions, 1999***	Prosecutions and cautions per 100 detected RAOs
(col)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)
1 Avon and Somerset	626	887	240	27	93	38.8	73	78
2 Bedfordshire	134	300	42	14	17	40.5	21	124
3 Cambridgeshire	205	519	222	43	124	55.9	63	51
4 Cheshire	158	421	98	23	63	64.3	46	73
5 Cleveland	147	204	29	14	11	37.9	20	182
6 Cumbria	45	85	27	32	11	40.7	9	82
7 Derbyshire	208	383	263	69	147	55.9	45	31
8 Devon and Cornwall	116	538	120	22	80	66.7	30	38
9 Dorset	145	185	83	45	34	41.0	17	50
10 Durham	75	178	30	17	25	83.3	24	96
11 Essex	229	431	87	20	49	56.3	61	124
12 Gloucester	83	258	147	57	70	47.6	21	30
13 Greater Manchester	1,197	2,324	693	30	358	51.7	261	73
14 Hampshire	271	654	273	42	177	64.8	86	49
15 Hertfordshire	325	703	148	21	89	60.1	49	55
16 Humberside	111	215	70	33	27	38.6	24	89
17 Kent	273	914	339	37	157	46.3	47	30
18 Lancashire	450	917	232	25	121	52.2	92	76
19 Leicestershire	367	878	169	19	95	56.2	100	105
20 Lincolnshire	14	19	12	63	10	83.3	12	120
21 City of London	28	55	40	73	16	40.0	13	81
22 Merseyside	324	822	234	28	116	49.6	59	51
23 Metropolitan Police	11,050	23,346	13,850	59	3,357	24.2	1,667	50
24 Norfolk	94	253	76	30	53	69.7	35	66
25 Northamptonshire	282	597	191	32	147	77.0	42	29
26 Northumbria	623	1,159	273	24	187	68.5	76	41
27 North Yorkshire	64	96	6	6	4	66.7	7	175
28 Nottinghamshire	475	714	425	60	189	44.5	170	90
29 South Yorkshire	293	557	98	18	67	68.4	47	70
30 Staffordshire	220	202	176	87	59	33.5	29	49
31 Suffolk	150	234	125	53	89	71.2	46	52
32 Surrey	126	338	168	50	76	45.2	18	24
33 Sussex	399	934	246	26	80	32.5	44	55
34 Thames Valley	486	999	420	42	143	34.0	86	60
35 Warwickshire	111	150	66	44	31	47.0	10	32
36 West Mercia	83	464	228	49	93	40.8	26	28
37 West Midlands	988	1,548	883	57	422	47.8	229	54
38 West Yorkshire	1,068	2,118	234	11	173	73.9	163	94
39 Wiltshire	101	221	77	35	44	57.1	25	57
40 Dyfed Powys	37	99	76	77	66	86.8	21	32
41 Gwent	98	213	97	46	85	87.6	45	53
42 North Wales	36	80	35	44	17	48.6	11	65
43 South Wales	734	1,602	402	25	234	58.2	208	89
44 England and Wales	23,049	47,814	21,750	45	7,506	34.5	4,178	56

Sources: Home Office (2000a): Povey et al (2000); data supplied by the Home Office (RDS) Crime and Criminal Justice Unit (see also Appendix C1)

Notes:

* The "attrition" of cases through the system (see Chapter 2) shows a steady reduction for the England and Wales totals and for most forces. There are also considerable differences in the number of RAOs per 100 incidents (col 5), which may in part be due to variability in recording practices between forces.

** Racist incidents in the preceding year (col 2) are given as a comparison.

*** It is recognised that a single detected offence can lead to several persons charged or cautioned (col 7) and also that RAO charges may be added by the CPS (see Chapter 6). These factors are most likely to be evident for forces who dealt with a small number of cases (see especially the figures exceeding 100 in col 9).