Police recorded more than 10,000 disability hate crimes annually between 2022 and 2025, but fewer than 300 people per year were convicted of this offence, suggesting the great majority of perpetrators of this crime are escaping justice.

Home Office and Crown Prosecution data shows that in 2024/25 police recorded 10,224 disability hate crimes in England and Wales while only 214 people were convicted for this category of offence in the same year.

In 2023/24 there were 11,131 police-recorded disability hate crimes and only 233 convictions while in 2022/23 and 2021/22 the corresponding figures were, respectively, 13,637 and 245 and 13,611 and 273.

However bad these figures are, the real situation is worse.

The Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) estimates the actual number of disability hate crimes carried out in 2024/25 to be 56,000, bringing the conviction numbers for the year down to a tiny fraction of the crimes committed.

Meanwhile, disability hate crime has not, until now, been treated as an aggravated offense in the same way that race or religious hate crimes are.

Sentences handed down for aggravated offences are tougher than those issued for ‘standard’ crimes.

In an apparent recognition of the need to treat disability hate crime more seriously, the Government changed the law in April 2026 to make disability an aggravated offence category; however, this law is yet to come into force.

Not that the new law will automatically result in better outcomes for disabled victims.

According to Inclusion London, which campaigns for justice for disabled victims of hate crime, the new law will make little difference for as long as the definition of disability hate crime is narrowly focussed on offenders’ feelings of hostility or hatred towards their victims.

At present, a crime can only be classed as a disability hate crime if evidence shows the offender was motivated by hatred or hostility towards their victim because of their condition or impairment.

 

If an offender targets a disabled person because of their disability, but their offence is framed as being motivated by self-gain rather than hostility, they will not be prosecuted  for a hate crime.

Inclusion London has said the Amanda Wixon slavery case shows how the current law lets disabled victims down.

Amanda Wixon held ‘K’, a woman with a learning disability, as a slave for 25 years.

In that time, Wixon forced K to carry out daily household chores on her hands and knees, denied her medical treatment, fed her on scraps, tortured her and regularly beat her up, even knocking all her teeth out with a broom handle.

Although Wixon targeted K because of challenges associated with her disability, the case was prosecuted as modern slavery with no mention of disability hate crime.

As a result there was no sentence uplift and Wixon was jailed for just 13 years.

DR Mark Walters, Professor of Crime and Criminology at Sussex University, was quoted by Inclusion London as saying: “The law should ask not only whether a perpetrator expressed hostility, but whether the victim was targeted because of their disability. Without reform that reflects this, the most predatory crimes against Disabled people will continue to be missed.”

The risk of missing hate crimes committed against disabled people is all the greater because they so often go on behind closed doors.

With so called ‘mate crimes’, for example, predators befriend disabled people whilst being fully aware of the vulnerability of their situation and using that to their advantage. For example, such ‘mates’ may move into a disabled person’s home, store drugs or weapons there and steal their money.

This is a crime as the disabled person is being presented with a false persona and being taken advantage of.

‘Care crime’ can also occur. This is when care givers exploit disabled people by taking their money, abusing them in all manner of ways or neglecting them by not meeting their needs in their everyday life.

Disability hate crimes of all kinds can destroy people’s confidence and make them feel unsafe, even in their own homes.

One disabled woman named Holly*, who is training to be a disabled media spokesperson with Inclusion Barnet, told me the police could do a lot more to make disabled victims feel heard and respected.

Holly has a Pegasus card, which is issued by the police to those who have difficulty communicating during an emergency. If cardholders dial 999 and say ‘Pegasus’ and their card number, the police can bring up all their details, enabling the caller to avoid explaining everything.

The card is designed to give people easier access to the emergency services, but Holly feels the police have not listened to her when she’s used it.

“They have never arrived at the scene of any emergencies for me which has been very frustrating. It’s made me feel unheard and also quite isolated,” said Holly.

“If the police responded to Pagasus card-holders and arrived at the scenes it could prevent more serious crimes from happening as they will have arrived before things have escalated,” added Holly.

It is important that as a society we work together to reduce disability hate crime as it can destroy people’s quality of life or even result in their deaths.

Apart from the legal changes mentioned earlier, there are other things that could be done to tackle disability hate crime. One is the provision of training to front-line police and service providers to help them recognise disability-targeted crime.

Campaigns could also be run to alert the public to this issue. If more people are aware this occurs, it is more likely that a member of the public will step in to help, even if just by calling the police.

We should also create more inclusive community-based activities that can bring people together and give disabled people a support network, reducing their isolation and thereby, hopefully, making them safer.

*Holly is not the person’s real name.

 

*Holly is not the person’s real name.