Disability hate crime prosecutions tumble again, three years after CPS admitted figures were ‘woeful’

Prosecutions of disability hate crime plummeted again last year, with less than 300 cases taken forward by prosecutors, despite police forces in England and Wales recording more than 10,000 offences.

It is now the seventh year in succession that Disability News Service (DNS) has raised the alarm about plummeting levels of prosecutions of disability hate crime, with little if any action being taken by the police or Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to address the trend.

It comes three years after both CPS and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) finally admitted their performance was not good enough and needed to improve.

Despite those pledges, their levels have continued to deteriorate.

The blame – in National Hate Crime Awareness Week – is centred mainly on the police, as in previous years, for passing on so few cases to prosecutors, despite huge numbers of recorded offences, at more than 10,000 a year.

Levels of disability hate crime estimated by the national crime survey are more than five times higher, at about 56,000 adult victims a year, which police believe is probably the true level of disability hate crime.

The number of disability hate crime prosecutions fell from 306 in 2023-24 to 279 in 2024-25, while the number of convictions has also fallen again, from 233 to just 214 in the whole of England and Wales.

But CPS has told DNS that police forces passed only 328 disability hate crime cases to prosecutors in the whole of 2024-25, another fall compared with 338 in 2023-24.

The Home Office and CPS reports* mean that, in 2016-17, there were about 5,400 disability hate crime offences recorded by police and 1,009 prosecutions (prosecutions making up 18.7 per cent of offences), compared with 10,224 offences and only 279 prosecutions in 2024-25 (with prosecutions just 2.6 per cent of recorded offences)**.

Both CPS and NPCC have been promising to improve their performance on providing justice for victims of disability hate crime since 2022.

CPS said three years ago that statistics that showed that less than 350 disability hate crimes had been prosecuted the previous year made “for woeful reading”, while NPCC said in the same year that the performance of police forces across the country in providing justice for victims of disability hate crime was “not good enough” and must improve.

Since then, the number of prosecutions has continued to fall.

A spokesperson for Inclusion London, which leads the Justice for Disabled Victims disability hate crime campaign, said: “Feeling safe in our community is something that many of us take for granted, but hate crime can tear that safety apart in a single moment.

“Even if somebody is able to report that crime, plummeting prosecution rates mean that we are unable to get justice.

“A new approach is needed, putting people with lived experience, including those who face intersectional hate, at the heart of a new, funded national hate crime strategy.

“Our communities and organisations have vital expertise that the government is missing; it must work with us to shape a better system.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council refused to comment on the figures, the third consecutive year it has done so.

But a Home Office spokesperson said: “Whilst the police are operationally independent, we expect the police to fully investigate these appalling offences and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators of these abhorrent offences are brought to justice.

“We are absolutely committed to tackling all forms of hate crime, and have already committed to protect disabled people by making all existing strands of hate crime an aggravated offence.”

CPS declined to criticise the police, despite police forces only referring 328 suspects to prosecutors in the entire year in relation to disability hate crime.

But Lionel Idan, chief crown prosecutor and CPS hate crime lead, said in a statement: “Disability hate crime has a devastating and far-reaching impact and we will not hesitate to prosecute offenders.

“While we can only take action when passed a file from police, we consistently bring charges in over eight out of every 10 cases when a charging decision is made by the CPS, more than three quarters of which result in a conviction.

“Last year, we published a best-practice guide to investigating and prosecuting disability hate crime, which we developed in close collaboration with leading academic experts, disability charity representatives and the police.

“This has since been used by both CPS prosecutors and the police, to improve how these cases are handled.”

The Home Office figures also show that the number of disability hate crimes recorded by police fell by eight per cent, from 11,131 in 2023-24 to 10,224 in 2024-25, the second consecutive annual fall.

But separate figures from the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW), which provides estimates of the actual levels of personal and household crimes experienced by adults in England and Wales, rather than those recorded by police, show – according to NPCC – a 12 per cent increase in disability hate crime when comparing the three years from April 2016 to April 2019 with the three years from April 2022 to April 2025.

The latest CSEW figures show an estimated 56,000 adult victims of disability hate crime a year, more than five times larger than the number of offences recorded by police.

NPCC said this suggested disability hate crime offences “are going unreported or unrecorded”, and that the Home Office release “does not reflect a true reduction in crime”.

An NPCC spokesperson said: “We are determined to understand the reasons for this gap in reporting and work with key partners to improve confidence in policing and access to our services.

“NPCC leads will be developing an action plan to ensure we work with stakeholders in this area to address this issue and improve our support for disabled victims of crime.”

Despite the recent rise, the CSEW figures show that disability hate crime did fall by 31 per cent between 2006-2009 and 2022-25.

The Home Office figures also show that 42 per cent of disability hate crimes recorded by police were for allegations of stalking and harassment and 29 per cent were public order offences, while 19 per cent were crimes of violence against individuals.

Overall, there was a two per cent increase in recorded hate crime in 2024-25, with a six per cent increase in race hate crimes and a three per cent rise in religious hate crimes.

There was a 19 per cent increase in hate crimes targeted at Muslims, and an 18 per cent fall in the number targeted at Jews, although the hate crime rate is still far higher for Jewish people, at 106 per 10,000 population, compared with Muslim people, at 12 per 10,000.

*See table 9.1

**The Home Office recorded hate crime figures exclude the Metropolitan police, for statistical reasons, so the true prosecution rate for 2024-25 will be even lower

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