The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is prosecuting more hate crimes, more successfully and with more defendants pleading guilty than ever before.

In England and Wales in 2008-09, there were 9,035 guilty pleas out of a total of 10,690 convictions and 13,030 prosecutions overall relating to hate crime. In 2009-10 this went up to 9,700 guilty pleas, 11,405 convictions and 13,921 prosecutions. In 2010-11 there were 10,823 guilty pleas out of 12,651 convictions and 15,284 prosecutions overall.

For the first time in this report, the CPS is also collecting religiously and racially aggravated crime separately with a view to providing a more detailed picture to the communities affected. Of the 12,711 race-related offences prosecuted in 2010-11, 83.1% were successful. The CPS was successful in 472 out of 565 cases motivated by religious hatred, a success rate of 83.4%.