A RISING number of gay and transgender people are becoming victims of hate crime on trains, figures have revealed.
While the overall number of hate crimes on the railways are falling, those against people due to their sexuality or for being transgender has risen in the last five years.
Such crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have accounted for more than a third of all hate crimes reported to transport police in the nine months to January this year, while in 2017 they accounted for just 14 percent.
Jamie Greene, Scottish Conservative MSP, has described the situation “shocking and unacceptable” and called for the Scottish Government to take more stringent action.
He said: “It is shocking and extremely disheartening to see such huge rises in hate crime on trains this year.
“Instead of becoming more tolerant, we seem to be going backwards.”
It comes after The Herald revealed that LGBT people in Scotland have also seen a rise in violent hate crime being committed against them, with 85 per cent of abuse aggravated by sexual orientation or gender identity recorded as violent last year. In 2014, the level was 75%.
READ MORE: LGBT Scots seeing 'unacceptable' rise in violent hate crimes against them
According to the data presented by the Scottish Government, and provided by the British Transport police (BTP), last year saw a significant drop in the numbers of hate crime overall on the train network, likely to be due to the lack of travel during the pandemic, with just 61 hate crimes recorded overall between April 1 2020 and March 31 2021.
However levels have peaked since then, with 38 crimes against lesbian and gay people being reported to BTP between April 1, 2021 and January 12, 2022. In 2017, the total for the whole year was 24.
In 2017, three hate crimes against people for their transgender identity were recorded, which has risen to four in the nine months to January 2021.
Racial abuse remains the largest proportion of reported hate crimes on trains, with 105 crimes being recorded in 2017, falling to 81 between April 2021 and January 2022. This still equates to a significant proportion of all hate crime recorded on the railways, making up 60% of the 118 hate crimes recorded by BTP between April last year and January this year.
Sectarian abuse and abuse against disabled people has also fallen, going from 85 and 4 incidents in 2017 to 16 and 2 incidents by January 2022, respectively.
The only types of abuse which have seen a rise are due to sexual orientation and transgender identity despite the overall number of reports falling from 195 to 118 in the same period.
Mr Green, West Scotland MSP, has called for more funding for the police to help tackle the crimes, saying: "Everyone should be able to feel safe when travelling on public transport, and it is a failure of leadership that people in Scotland have not been protected from this kind of abuse.
“The SNP must urgently do more to prevent these crimes through educational initiatives, as well as via our justice system.
“Police Scotland must have the resources to deal with every case with the seriousness and compassion it warrants.
“Current penalties are simply not enough of a deterrent to prevent this shocking abuse, and the SNP’s real-terms cut to police funding next year will only make it more difficult for Police Scotland to do their job, and get down to tackling these unacceptable crimes.”
The Scottish Government said the increased number of reports by LGBT people could be down to victims having more confidence to come forward, which a spokesman said was “something that is to be encouraged”.
He added: “However, these figures are a reminder to redouble our efforts to tackle hate and confront prejudice towards our LGBTI communities.
“Despite UK Government austerity we have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17 and have invested more than £10bn in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013.
“The total budget for policing in 2022-23 is almost £1.4 billion, including an additional £40.5m increase in resource funding.”
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