Hate crime and hate speech: UK government action

Before the recommendation was made in September 2024, the UK government passed the Online Safety Act 2023. The Act puts a range of duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users’ safety on their platforms. This includes tools that individuals can use to reduce their likelihood of seeing abusive or hateful content including racist, antisemitic, homophobic, or misogynistic content. The Act also gives providers new duties to implement systems and processes to reduce risks that their services are used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear. This includes illegal content which stirs up (provokes) racial hatred and illegal abuse. Platforms also now have duties to protect children from content which is harmful to them, but which does not cross the illegality threshold. This includes content which incites hatred based on race and racial abuse.

Ofcom, the UK’s regulator for communications services, sets out the steps providers can take to fulfil their duties in their updated illegal content codes of practice. This was published in March and July 2025. The codes set out comprehensive measures that different kinds of platforms can take to address relevant content on their services. This includes content that stirs up racial hatred and abuse that targets people on the basis of their race. Ofcom has enforcement powers to take action against platforms that fail to fulfil their duties.

Civil society stakeholders, internet providers and social media platforms provided evidence to Parliament as part of the formal pre-legislative scrutiny of the Online Safety Bill, which later became the Act. The scrutiny Committee’s final report on the bill made 127 separate recommendations after holding over 30 hours of public evidence, reading over 200 pieces of written evidence and speaking to over 50 expert witnesses.  

Assessment up to date as of September 2025.

While hate speech and xenophobia are not defined in UK law, forms of expression which amount to verbal abuse, harassment or incite hatred against another person or group on the basis of their race or religion have been unlawful since before the recommendation was made in September 2024. This conduct can amount to criminal offences under the Public Order Act 1986 and the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

In addition, section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020 provides the court with direction to impose more severe penalties within the existing maximum sentence thresholds for offences based on hostility towards race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity.

In October 2023, the Online Safety Act was passed into law. The Act puts a range of duties on social media companies and search services. These include requiring them to put systems in place to protect users from illegal content, such as content that stirs up (provokes) racial hatred and racial abuse. Ofcom, the UK’s independent regulator of communication services, can take enforcement action against services that are not taking proportionate action.

Since the recommendation was made, the UK government has not adopted specific measures to prevent xenophobic and racist hate speech by politicians and public figures, or taken action to ensure proper investigation and punishment where it occurs.

In October 2024, the UK government’s Human Rights Ambassador made a statement condemning all forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia. The statement did not specifically reference politicians and public figures.

Assessment up to date as of September 2025.

The UK government does not have a media strategy which focuses on journalists’ and broadcasters’ responsibility to avoid hate speech and stereotyping of minorities.

In May 2024, before the CERD recommendation was made in September 2024, the government introduced the Media Act 2024. The Media Act reforms the legal framework for the regulation of public service broadcasting, bringing video-on-demand services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ under new Ofcom rules. Ofcom is the UK’s independent regulator of TV and radio services in the UK. It is accountable to Parliament and has the power to investigate and sanction broadcasters for breaching the Broadcasting Code.

The Broadcasting Code was established in December 2020 and sets out the responsibility of journalists and broadcasters to avoid the use of hate speech. Section 2 of the standards on harm and offence requires broadcasters to ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by context. This includes discriminatory treatment or language on the grounds of all protected characteristic groups, including race. Section 3 of the standards on crime, disorder, hatred and abuse states that material likely to ‘encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder’ must not be included in television or radio services. It also outlines that material which contains hate speech must not be included in television and radio programmes or BBC On-Demand Programme Service except where it is justified by the context.

While independent of government and Parliament, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) has the power to investigate and issue fines to publishers in relation to instances of alleged racist media coverage in newspapers. It enforces the Editors' Code of Practice, which prohibits discriminatory or hateful content.

Assessment up to date as of September 2025.

The CRC and CERD recommendations were made in June 2023 and September 2024 respectively.

Since both recommendations were made, the UK government has continued to fund True Vision, which was established in January 2018 as an online hate crime reporting portal. It includes a page on racist hate crime and a page targeted at young people. The UK government also funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub which supports individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.

Protection and support for victims of hate crime from reprisals and intimidation is established through a mix of legislation and policies such as:

• the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (section 51)
• policing policies on responding to hate crime
• support services for victims of hate crime
• the Victims’ Code
• hate crime court measures

All of these were established or introduced before the recommendations were made.

Assessment up to date as of September 2025. 

Since the recommendations were made in 2019 and 2024, the UK government has taken some action to address hate crime investigation prosecution, remedies and reporting.

Investigation and prosecution of hate crimes

The UK government’s 2016 to 2020 hate crime action plan focused on tackling hate crime ‘from beginning to end’. This included understanding the causes of hate crime, dealing with these causes and providing better support for victims. In April 2024, the government confirmed that it would not publish an updated hate crime strategy.

Since 2019, the UK government has funded the National Online Hate Crime Hub. The hub is a central online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. The hub also supports individual local police forces dealing with online hate crime to ensure that all online cases are properly investigated.

In June 2025, the UK government established an Antisemitism Working Group to provide advice to the government on antisemitism. It will look at how the UK government should engage Jewish communities around international, national and local events affecting British Jews, and how antisemitism can be tackled effectively.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is responsible for prosecuting hate crimes and operates independently from the UK government and police. His Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (CPSI) inspects the CPS to ensure effective prosecution.

Hate crime legal framework

Sections 29 to 32 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 contain specific racially or religiously aggravated offences, which have higher maximum penalties than the non-aggravated versions of those offences.

Stirring up (provoking) racial and religious hatred and hatred based on sexual orientation are criminal offences under sections 17 to 29N of the Public Order Act 1986. These offences deal with conduct (either words or behaviour) or material which is threatening in nature, and which is intended to stir up hatred against a group of people who are defined by reference to sexual orientation, race or religion.

In December 2020, section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020 came into force to consolidate sentencing laws and codifying requirements. It applies to all convictions on or after 1 December 2020. This legislation requires sentencing courts to treat hostility on the basis of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity as an aggravating factor that must be considered in sentencing.

In 2020, the government commissioned an independent review of hate crime laws by the Law Commission with the aim of making them fairer, while also protecting freedom of expression. The Hate crime laws: Final report, published in December 2021, included a core recommendation that all protected characteristics currently protected by hate crime laws should be protected equally. These protected characteristics are race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and ‘transgender identity’.

The government has not implemented the recommendations of the Law Commission’s independent report. However, in April 2023 the government responded to recommendation 8, stating their agreement that ‘sex or gender should not be added as a protected characteristic for the purposes of aggravated offences and enhanced sentencing’. In November 2024, the UK government confirmed that it would be reviewing all recommendations made by the Law Commission in its report on hate crime legislation, including those relating to sex and gender.

In June 2025, the UK government committed to extend the aggravated offences via the Crime and Policing Bill, to also cover the protected characteristics of sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability. This aligns with recommendation 12 of the Law Commission’s independent report. The bill is not yet in force.

In February 2025, the UK government established an independent working group to advise government on a non-statutory definition of anti-Muslim hatred/Islamophobia. This work will support a wider stream of work to tackle the incidents of anti-Muslim hatred.

In March 2025, the Home Secretary announced that the government would strengthen the law to address anti-Semitic and Islamophobic abuse through amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill. The proposed changes will give police new powers to assess whether a protest may create an intimidating atmosphere that could deter people from accessing places of worship and will make it a criminal offence to climb significant memorials, including the Holocaust Memorial in Westminster.

Training for law enforcement

Since the CAT recommendation was made in June 2019, the UK government has funded the National Online Hate Crime Hub. The hub supports police forces through conferences and meetings to raise awareness on how to tackle online hate crime. Before the recommendation, in October 2018, the UK government committed to improve training for police and the wider criminal justice system to recognise and respond to hate crime. There is no evidence that such improvements were made.

The College of Policing is an independent, non-departmental public body responsible for setting standards and providing guidance for policing in England and Wales. In October 2020, it published a new Authorised Professional Practice (APP) guide for Hate Crime. This was last updated in October 2023. The College of Policing develop national hate crime training which is included in core initial training for police officers and other specialist roles like detective training. Each force is responsible for delivering its own training.

Remedies for victims and families

In May 2024, the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 created a duty for the Secretary of State for Justice to publish a new Victims’ Code. The duty is not yet in force. It intends to provide services for victims to help them engage in the criminal justice process, including making their voices heard and challenging any decisions which have a direct impact on them. The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime in England and Wales (Victims' Code), last updated in January 2025, includes a right for victims to review any decisions which have a direct impact on them via the ‘Victim’s Right to Review Scheme’.

The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 has also enhanced the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner to request responses to their recommendations and to require service providers to co-operate with them. There is no evidence that the UK government has improved access to compensation for victims of hate crime since the recommendations were published.    

In July 2025, the government announced a new fund to provide a comprehensive service to monitor anti-Muslim hatred and provide support to victims. As well as monitoring and reporting incidents, the grant recipient, the British Muslim Trust, will work to increase awareness of what a hate crime is, encourage victims to come forward to report incidents, and facilitate support for victims of hate.

Assessment up to date as of September 2025.

The UK government has not implemented the recommendations of the Law Commission’s 2021 final report.

The report included a core recommendation that all protected characteristics currently protected by hate crime laws (race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and ‘transgender identity’) should be protected equally.     

In April 2023, before the recommendation was made, the UK government responded to one recommendation, stating their agreement with the Law Commission’s recommendation 8 that ‘sex or gender should not be added as a protected characteristic for the purposes of aggravated offences and enhanced sentencing’.  

In November 2024, the UK government confirmed that it would be reviewing all recommendations made by the Law Commission in its report on hate crime legislation, including those relating to sex and gender. 

Assessment up to date as of December 2024.