“Had I needed to make a finding of fault in this matter, it is obvious that fault would have rested on the shoulders of a single person. I need say no more on the matter…” 

Re St Mary Whitchurch [2026] ECC Cov 3

Hate crimes and antisemitism

In answer to a written Question from Lord (Chris) Patten asking whether the number of hate crimes related to antisemitism has increased or decreased since 2016, Lord Hanson of Flint, Minister of State at the Home Office, said this:

“The Government is clear that antisemitic hate crime is completely unacceptable and remains committed to tackling antisemitism in all its forms.

The Home Office began collecting data on hate crimes motivated by religious hatred on a mandatory basis in 2017/18. Data was not provided by two forces for this first year, so records are available for all forces back to 2018/19 as set out below.

Police recorded antisemitic hate crimes

The total number of antisemitic hate crimes increased from 1,326 in 2018/19 to 2,873 in 2024/25, a rise of 116.7%. These figures show an overall upward trend in the number of police recorded antisemitic hate crimes with the highest number of antisemitic hate crimes recorded in 2023/23. However, due to a change in the Metropolitan Police Service’s crime recording system, their data was excluded from the Home Office statistical release for the year 2024/25 so the data for that year does not present the full picture and direct comparisons between 2018/19 and 2024/25 should be treated with caution.

Given this wholly unacceptable scale of antisemitic hate crimes, the Government is supporting the police and wider criminal justice system to respond robustly, including through the provision of £251 million for policing over the next three years. The funding will support the deployment of over 500 additional police officers to increase police visibility in Jewish communities; fund antisemitism training for every officer in England and Wales; strengthen efforts to tackle hate crime; and enhance counterterrorism, intelligence, investigatory and coordination capabilities.”

Written parliamentary questions

Further to last week’s item, which highlighted the findings of the Hansard Society that more than 6,000 written questions had been tabled in the Commons after the summer recess, on 15 September, the Procedure Committee published its report on Written Parliamentary Questions. The Committee calls for MPs to exercise voluntary restraint, and to “carefully consider the trade-off between getting high-quality responses and submitting a large quantity” of WPQs.

Issue checker

Further to a helpful suggestion by Aybek S Akhmedov, we are investigating the inclusion of an easily-accessible summary on the chronology and status of developing issues of interest, through a small standardised “status box” indicating:

• current legal position;
• latest development; primary source of information;
• next steps; and
• links to L&RUK coverage.

Our current thoughts are that this might be best achieved through the addition of another button on the taskbar on the Home Page, as we did with the addition of the button for the Index.

Delay to hard copy of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal

The hard copy version of the May issue of the Journal is delayed. The Society’s publishers, CUP, have experienced technical difficulties which, they say, have been beyond their control to resolve. Members have just been informed that the May issue will be posted out soon and will be delivered in the next few weeks.

Quick Links

• COMECE Secretariat, Position Paper: Erasure from baptismal registers: considerations after the EU Court hearing in Case C-12/25, Bisdom Gent.