To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to reduce the level of racially-aggravated crime in Coventry in the last 12 months. (276692)

Much of the Home Office’s work to tackle racially-aggravated and other hate crimes is at national level as the first step.

For instance, the Home Office is currently developing a Cross-Government Action Plan on Hate Crime in conjunction with other Departments and criminal justice agencies. This aims to support Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), such as Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership, to tackle racially-aggravated crime and learn from good practice in other localities. Local areas need to be able to tailor their response to their particular situation.

Coventry’s Community Safety Partnership continues to prioritise the importance of anti-racist training which has been delivered not only to staff working in the community but also to police officers, neighbourhood wardens, social landlords and community activists. Hate crime in Coventry has been reduced by 9.1 per cent. in the 12 months of 2008-09 against the previous 12 months of 2007-08.