The Public Prosecution Service has published statistics showing a further increase in files received from police involving a perceived hate crime in Northern Ireland during the 2025-26 financial year.

The bulletin covers cases involving hate crime submitted by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and cases where a prosecutor considered an offence to have been aggravated by hostility.

The report includes data from the period of public disorder in Ballymena and other parts of Northern Ireland in June 2025, but does not include figures from public disorder in June 2026.

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron said hate crimes have a profound impact on victims and wider communities, targeting individuals because of characteristics such as race, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation.

He said the trend of increasing hate crime files is deeply concerning and that similar increases have been seen across other UK jurisdictions.

The PPS said it treats these crimes extremely seriously and is committed to working with police and other criminal justice partners to tackle them effectively and hold perpetrators to account where evidence allows.

Herron said conviction rates are particularly high in cases considered to have been aggravated by hostility, and that prosecutors dealing with these cases are trained and experienced, handling all allegations in line with the PPS Hate Crime Policy.

He urged anyone who is a victim of hate crime to come forward and report it to the police, adding that where cases meet the Test for Prosecution they are robustly prosecuted using offences that allow courts to impose strong deterrent sentences on those convicted.