Jeff Lill the HMCPSI Lead Inspector on Hate Crime delivered the keynote speech at the Combating Hate Crime Conference in London on Tuesday 1 March 2016.

“Handling Disability Hate Crime in the Criminal Justice System’, addressed the complex factors that impact on disability hate crime, including under reporting.  Whilst there are an estimated 62,000 incidents according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales , only 2,508 incidents were recorded by the police in 2014/15.  Together with this, Jeff Lill also spoke about the issues relating to the roles of the police, CPS and probation providers.  There was also a detailed Q&A session, where he was asked questions around the court’s interpretation of the law, hate crime week, and steps that could be taken to improve performance.

The rest of the day saw speeches from various anti-hate crime organisations such as ‘Show Racism the Red Card’, and from representatives from Police and Crime Commissioners who highlighted different approaches for tackling hate crime.

The event was organised by Inside Government, and delegates came from a variety of backgrounds, all with an interest in combating and tackling hate crime.  This included the police and Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), charitable organisations such as the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and Victim Support, among many others.

Senior Inspector Jeff Lill said:

“I was very pleased to be invited to take part in this event, and it was interesting to hear from different organisations on the work that they have been doing to help tackle hate crime.

“As our report last year showed, a lot of work needs to be done to make sure that firstly people are reporting disability hate crime, and secondly it is being dealt with in a proper and timely manner by criminal justice agencies.”