Hate crime strategy

Aim 2

The nature, characteristics, and extent of hate crime in Scotland are more fully understood and effectively inform appropriate interventions and policy development.

In order to prevent and tackle hate crime in Scotland, we need to understand what is happening. This includes the collection and publication of data, including information on intersectionality.

Our commitment to continued meaningful and on-going lived experience engagement is another important tool in understanding the experiences of hate crime and shaping our interventions.

Commitment 6

We will ensure that what we have heard, and continue to hear, from lived experience engagement is taken into account in the delivery of the commitments.

Lead organisations: Scottish Government, Police Scotland

Lived experience engagement has been central to the development of this strategy and has allowed us to deepen our understanding of what it's like to experience hate crime in 2022. Unfortunately the experiences we are hearing about are not new, including the types of prejudice people face and the various barriers when it comes to reporting. We are committed to supporting a range of on-going, participatory engagement to help inform every stage of our delivery – and importantly, to understand if our interventions are making a positive difference.

We will work with partners, taking into account the views of people affected by hate crime, to develop a delivery plan which will set out immediate activity to be taken forward in 2023/24 as well as medium-longer term activity required to fulfil the new strategy over its lifetime. This includes working with organisations that support communities affected by hate crime to understand the issues, so as not to overburden individuals with requests to continually share their experiences.

We recognise that more can be done to hear from those who may not engage with stakeholder organisations, and we will work widely with our engagement partners and representative groups to understand more about these voices where possible.

Equality Impact Assessments undertaken to support the development of this strategy, and as we develop a delivery plan, will ensure that we are continually considering the effect of plans on as wide a range of people and communities as possible.

Commitment 7

We will work to ensure that the level and availability of disaggregated hate crime data is improved.

Lead organisations: Scottish Government, Police Scotland, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

We recognise that having robust data and evidence on hate crime is essential to help us more effectively prevent and tackle it in Scotland. It needs to show a greater level of disaggregation and tell us more about victims and perpetrators, including more information on when multiple characteristics are targeted or intersectionality and how this impacts people's experience of hate crime.

The need for improvements in hate crime data was recognised by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and we are determined to ensure compliance with its recommendations in this regard.^[30]

The Hate Crime Act will require information about police recorded hate crime and convictions to be published annually, and with greater detail where known. In order to implement this, justice partners will be required to complete a number of IT change programmes in advance in order to comply. For example, Police Scotland systems will need to be updated to allow police officers to record more detailed information about the type of prejudice shown.

In the meantime, we have made significant progress in ensuring such data is available by publishing two studies into the 'Characteristics of Police Recorded Hate Crime in Scotland.' These studies present statistics on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police in Scotland over 2014-15 to 2021-22, and provide helpful insight as to the nature of hate crimes and characteristics of both victims and perpetrators.

In addition to improvements in hate crime data, the wide-ranging programme of work aimed at strengthening Scotland's equality evidence base, will provide additional information.

The Scottish Government funded qualitative study with people who encounter repeat experiences of violence, will further our understanding of some groups experiences of hate crime.^[31] The study is being conducted by researchers at the University of Glasgow and findings are due to be published later this year.

A robust data and evidence base will allow us to effectively monitor our interventions and how they are working going forward.

Our commitment to meaningful on-going lived experience engagement will also provide us with a rich understanding of the experiences of those directly affected by hate crime beyond the provision of statistical publications.