Hate crime in the U.K. has surged, with a record 80,393 offences recorded in 12 months to March 2017, according to Home Office figures released Tuesday.
Latest data show an increase of 29 percent, from 62,518 in the 2015/2016 period -- the largest increase since police started registering hate crimes five years ago.
"The increase over the last year is thought to reflect both a genuine rise in hate crime around the time of the EU referendum and also due to ongoing improvements in crime recording by the police," the Home Office said.
The number of race hate crimes increased by 27 percent (up 13,266 to 62,685) between 2015/16 and 2016/17. Over the same period religious hate crime increased by 35 percent (up 1,549 to 5,949 offences), the Home Office said.
"Race hate crime was the most commonly recorded strand of hate crime in all 44 police forces and for 41 forces, religious hate crime was either the third or fourth most commonly recorded strand, after either sexual orientation or disability," the latest release said.
There was a further increase in recorded hate crime following the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack on March 22.
Hate crime targeting Muslims has seen a "significant spike" following another terrorist attack in June 2017 in London, the capital's mayor, Sadiq Khan, said previously.
"There has been a significant spike in incidents of hate crime and Islamophobic incidents in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack," Khan said.
The number of hate crime incidents recorded by police spiked and reached a record monthly level of 6,000 incidents in June.
Following the EU referendum, this number reached a monthly peak of 5,500 in July 2016.
