Hate crimes have risen in Cambridgeshire over the past three years – with more attacks on individuals due to sexuality or disability.

Figures from police forces show that there were 1,371 offences in the county in 2020/21 compared to 1,007 in 2018/19.

Offences were based around race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender people.

While crimes motivated around religion had fallen from 92 reported incidents to 84 in recent years, crimes surrounding sexual orientation had risen from 108 to 141.

Disability hate crimes had also seen an increase from 53 to 80 incidents in three years.

There had been a four per cent increase in the total number of crimes in Cambridgeshire from 2019/20 (1,381) in relation to the most recent figures.

A Cambridgeshire police spokesperson, said: “While we haven’t seen a large increase in hate crimes in the past couple of years, one is one too many.

"We work hard to try and encourage victims to come forward so we can take action against those who choose to discriminate and commit hate crimes.

“It’s vitally important that victims of hate crime come forward and report incidents to us, no matter how small. All reports help us to build a picture and target our resources where they are needed most.

“Everyone deserves to live a life free from hate and discrimination because of perceived differences.

“The force is committed to tackling hate crime and we will do all we can to bring perpetrators to justice.”

There were 124,091 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales; of which there were 92,052 race hate crimes, 6,377 religious hate crimes, 18,596 sexual orientation hate crimes, 9,943 disability hate crimes and 2,799 transgender hate crimes.

Excluding Greater Manchester Police, who did not supply data for year ending March 2020, there were 114,958 hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in year ending March 2021, an increase of nine per cent compared with year ending March 2020 (105,090 offences).

While increases in hate crime over the last five years have been mainly driven by improvements in crime recording by the police, there have been spikes in hate crime following certain events such as the EU Referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017.

Numbers have risen each year since records began in 2011-12.

For support and to report a hate crime visit: https://www.cambs.police.uk/information-and-services/Hate-crime/Hate-crime