Police-recorded LGBT hate crimes up sharply since lockdown in Cambridgeshire and nationally

At least 14,670 sexual orientation hate crime offences were recorded from January to August 2021, compared with 11,841 in the same period of 2020 and 10,817 in 2019.

While offences averaged 1,456 a month from January to April this year, they jumped to 2,211 on average from May to August.

There is a similar trend for transphobic offences, which averaged 208 a month from January to April, but 324 for May to August

The figures were obtained by the PA news agency, based on freedom of information responses from 37 of 46 police forces.

Cambridgeshire Police recorded 143 sexual orientation hate crimes in the whole 2019, 130 in 2020 and 143 from January to August 2021.

Some 19 transphobic hate crimes were recorded in 2019, 20 in 2020 and 17 in January-August 2021.

The highest number of sexual orientation hate crimes in a calendar month across this period was 35 in August 2021; for transphobic hate crimes it was six in July 2021.

A total of 72 violence against the person sexual orientation hate crimes were recorded in 2019, with 60 in 2020 and 77 from January to August 2021.

There were five violent transphobic hate crimes recorded in 2019, seven in 2020 and nine in January-August 2021.

The highest number of violent sexual orientation hate crimes in a calendar month was 16 in January, July and August 2021; for violent transphobic hate crimes it was five in May 2021.

Charity Stonewall described the rise as “worrying” and said the figures are a “stark reminder” that LGBTQ+ people are “still at risk of attack because of who we are”.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) strongly encouraged victims to come forward and said officers are highly trained and will “treat everyone with respect and dignity and handle cases sensitively”.

Lockdown restrictions such as social distancing and the closure of shops and hospitality were in place across the UK for much of the first three months of 2021.

Restrictions were then eased in stages, with almost all lifted by the end of June – the month that saw the highest volume of homophobic (2,389) and transphobic (371) offences for any calendar month across all three years.

This equates to around 80 and 12 offences a day respectively – roughly double the 38 and six per day in January.

Organisations said more research is needed but there could be many reasons for the rise, including more opportunities to report offences as restrictions loosened, an increased number of people being out and about, and the reopening of the night-time economy.

Other factors could be more interaction with support networks who encourage victims to come forward; attacks that were motivated by the pandemic itself; and the higher profile of the LGBT community in June, which is Pride month.