South Yorkshire Police fails to supply figures for antisemitism and islamophobia offences in 2023

South Yorkshire Police was unable to supply figures for antisemitic and Islamophobic offences when asked through Freedom of Information requests.

The Press Association reports that it asked every police force in the country for the number of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crime offences recorded by police forces from October 7 to November 7 inclusive, together with totals for the equivalent periods in 2022 and 2021.

While all forces in the UK record and collate hate crime differently so the numbers could not be used to compare the volume of offences, they do provide a snapshot of the kind of crimes reported.

For example, British Transport Police recorded 87 antisemitic crimes in that period, compared to eight the year in 2022, marking an 11-fold rise. Islamaphobia also rose to 22 from two, a 10-told increase.

Most forces did not record a notable rise in either Islamophobia or anti-Semitism-related crime. A notable exception was Greater Manchester, which saw cases of antisemitism crime rise from 15 to 74.

However, 15 police forces in the country did not supply their data, with South Yorkshire Police among them.

PA did not specify the reason given by SYP, writing: "Three forces said the precise data requested was not available; three forces said collection of the precise data requested would exceed the threshold for a Freedom of Information response to be supplied free of charge; four forces said there was a delay in supplying the data; and five forces had failed to respond to the request as of December 28, 2023."

Meanwhile, West Yorkshire Police recorded a rise in antisemitic crime of 10 to 53 in that period, and a rise of 49 to 29 for Islamophobic crimes.

North Yorkshire Police did not record any of the two offences in 2021 or 2022, but recorded three of each in the period in 2023.