Racist Incidents Recorded by the Police in Scotland, 2013-14

Annex 5: Comparisons with England & Wales and Northern Ireland

England & Wales

6.49. In England & Wales, statistics on racist incidents are published by the Home Office on an annual basis. The annual publication is released with trends and commentary analysis.

6.50. The Home Office use the principles of the definition as given by Sir William MacPherson in his report on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and define Racist Incidents as:

'A 'racist incident' is any incident, including any crime, which is perceived by the victim or any other person to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person's race or perceived race.'

6.51. The statistics are released as part of a Hate Crime publication and can be accessed from the gov.uk website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2014-to-2015

Northern Ireland

6.52. In Northern Ireland, statistics on racist incidents are published by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on a quarterly (provisional figures) and an annual (finalised figures) basis. The annual publication is released along with trends and commentary analysis.

6.53. The PSNI use the principles of the definition as given by Sir William MacPherson in his report on the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and define Racist Incidents as:

'A racist incident is defined as any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.

A racial group can be defined as a group of persons defined by reference to race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins (this includes UK National origins i.e. Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish) and references to a person's racial group refer to any racial group into which he/she falls. Racial group includes the Irish Traveller community.'

6.54. The statistics are released as part of a Hate incidents theme and all publications can be accessed from the PSNI website: http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates_statistics/updates_hate_motivation_statistics.htm