My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Parmjit Dhanda) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am pleased to announce that I am today laying before Parliament and publishing the Government’s one-year-on response to the all-party inquiry into anti-Semitism.

Just over a year ago, Government responded to the all-party parliamentary inquiry into anti-Semitism report and undertook to report back to Parliament on progress in implementing its recommendations.

We believe that the best way to tackle anti-Semitism is through effective implementation of strong legislation against racial and religious discrimination and racially and religiously motivated crime. This must be underpinned by policies and strategies to increase racial equality and build community cohesion, particularly through education.

We have made significant progress against the 35 recommendations made by the all-party parliamentary inquiry’s constructive and comprehensive report. We have ensured that by April 2009 all police forces will collect data on all hate crime, including anti-Semitism; agreed that schools and authorities can use their devolved capital funding for investment in security at schools where this is a priority; committed to funding research on the impact of anti-Semitic discourse; and launched the Race for Justice Declaration, a cross-government strategy that aims to combat all forms of hate crime.

Despite this progress, there is no room for complacency and we will continue to take practical, effective action to stamp out anti-Semitism whenever and wherever it occurs. We are committed to increasing the number of hate crimes brought to prosecution, tackling anti-Semitism on university campuses and challenging hate crime and extremism on the internet. We have agreed to continue our support of the cross-departmental and Jewish stakeholder working group and will report back to Parliament on further progress in 2010.

This publication is available in the Libraries of both Houses.