Hinduphobia

Krupesh Hirani AM proposed, and Anne Clarke AM seconded the following motion:

“This Assembly wishes a Happy Diwali to all Londoners that celebrate.

This Assembly notes that recent statistics from the Home Office show that in 2022/2023 there were 291 hate crimes, accounting for 3 per cent of recorded by the police in England and Wales, against Hindus. This is an increase on the previous year which saw 161 recorded hate crimes. These figures also show that the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police by month have increased since 2015.  This Assembly notes that there are no public statistics on the number of religiously motivated hate crime by religion on the Metropolitan Police Service Crime Dashboard. 

This Assembly further notes that despite having the second lowest figure of recorded hate crimes, in 2022, Hindus formed the second most likely religion to have been victims of religiously motivated hate crime according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales. This suggests that Hindu hate crime is not being effectively recorded by police services.

This Assembly welcomes the Mayor’s leadership in celebrating London’s diverse communities and enjoyed seeing Londoners celebrating the festival of lights with Diwali on Trafalgar Square.

This Assembly calls for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to work with local Hindu communities to encourage confidence in reporting Hindu hate crime. The Assembly further calls for the MPS to include the break down of hate crime by religion on the Crime Dashboard.”

Following debate and upon being put to a vote, the motion, in the name of Krupesh Hirani AM, was agreed unanimously.