Meeting of the Parliament 13 June 2017
Emma Harper raises an important issue. Behind the statistics lie the personal testimony and experience of individuals. She touches on something that I did not address when I responded to Pauline McNeill. We always need to get behind the headline statistics. For example, religiously aggravated offences have indeed increased, although there has been a decrease in the number of charges for hate crime committed against the Muslim community. However, we need to be hypervigilant around underreporting and emphasise the need to engage with our communities and the organisations that represent them. In addition, there can be absolutely no scapegoating.
As I said in response to an earlier question, although, unlike south of the border, we saw no spike in hate crime following the EU referendum, we must not be complacent. I am sure that Emma Harper is interested to know, given her constituent’s experience of verbal abuse at work, that we are taking action and working with employers and the STUC to improve equality and community cohesion. We are also taking that work into new spheres such as the workplace.
It is important that members continue to raise the individual experiences of constituents because that gives the Government and others the opportunity to reiterate that EU nationals remain welcome in this country and that any abuse is unacceptable and must always be reported.