A Nottingham Forest fan has been fined banned from attending football matches for racially abusing opposition fans and a player at a game at the City Ground in December 2023.

A fan who racially abused Kasey Palmer during a Championship match has received a five-year football ban.

Under the hate crime legislation, courts must treat offences more seriously where there is evidence that the offender demonstrated hostility on the basis of the victim’s actual or presumed race, religion, disability, transgender identity or sexual orientation, or the offence was motivated on the basis of hostility towards one of these characteristics.

The conflict in the Middle East and protests that followed have undoubtedly resulted in surges in antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crime, alongside disturbing scenes of support for proscribed terror groups. This has understandably caused those communities to feel deep concern and fears for their safety. I am writing to set out the action that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has taken in response to the increase in these despicable crimes.

In April 2024, the CPS West Midlands Magistrates’ units successfully prosecuted various hate crime cases. Below are some of the cases.

Prosecutors charged 10 per cent more hate crime cases in the final three months of 2023, statistics out today (April 18) show.

Under the hate crime legislation, courts must treat offences more seriously where there is evidence that the offender demonstrated hostility on the basis of the victim’s actual or presumed race, religion, disability, transgender identity or sexual orientation, or the offence was motivated on the basis of hostility towards one of these characteristics. Below are some examples of hate crime cases prosecuted by CPS Yorkshire and Humberside in February 2024 which resulted in a conviction and an uplifted sentence.

In April 2024, prosecutors from CPS Wessex secured successful outcomes in a variety of hate crime cases across the magistrates’ and Crown Courts in Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and Wiltshire.

The CPS does not publish official statistics. CPS data is operational management information, which can be used as an indicator of CPS performance