In November 2025, the Home Office announced that Lord Macdonald of River Glaven KC had been appointed to lead an independent review of laws on public order and hate crime. 

What is the independent review looking into?

The review is examining the laws addressing protest and hate crime in England and Wales, the police’s use of available powers, and the balance between the right to free speech and the right to protest.  

The review will be guided by the following principles:

1.    Whether the legislation is fit for purpose

2.    Whether it adequately protects communities from intimidation and hate

3.    Whether it strikes a fair balance between freedom of expression and the right to protest with the need to prevent disorder and keep communities safe

What is Galop’s position?

The increasingly toxic environment for LGBT+ people in the UK, and particularly the trans+ community, is unacceptable.

Through our frontline services and research, we know LGBT+ people continue to face alarming rates of hate crime. The true prevalence of anti-LGBT+ hate crime, however, is unknown, given high levels of underreporting, which is often influenced by low levels of trust and confidence in the police.

LGBT+ people can experience a wide range of physical, emotional, psychological, and financial harm as a result of anti-LGBT+ hate crime. Our research with London TravelWatch into LGBT+ experiences on London public transport reinforces what clients tell us every day; many LGBT+ people live with a constant sense of vigilance around our safety, often changing our behaviour or appearance to reduce risk in public.

Current hate crime legislation and justice responses to anti-LGBT+ hate fail to recognise the significant harm it causes our community and have not kept up with the evolving nature of hate crime, including in online settings.

How did Galop respond to the consultation?

As a frontline anti-abuse charity that runs the UK’s national anti-LGBT+ hate crime advocacy service, Galop’s response focused on the needs and experiences of LGBT+ victims and survivors of abuse and violence.

One of our biggest issues with the hate crime laws is that they contain a hierarchy of protections and do not protect all of the five characteristics (race, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity and disability) equally. Aggravated offences only apply to crimes motivated by racial and religious hate, not hate towards a person’s sexual orientation, transgender identity or disability.

In our submission, we repeated our long-standing position that there is no basis for treating anti-LGBT+ and disability hate crimes as less serious, and the ongoing failure to fix this sends a message to our community that we are less worthy of protection.

Recognising anti-LGBT+ hate crimes as aggravated offences would also result in practical improvements to the criminal justice process for LGBT+ people by extending the statutory time limit for anti-LGBT+ hate crime cases to be submitted to the CPS, giving victims and survivors more time to report and giving police more time to thoroughly investigate and build cases.

Our submission also reaffirmed Galop’s significant concerns regarding the Metropolitan Police Service’s recent decision to stop investigating non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs). NCHIs are a vital intelligence tool that assist police in monitoring hate-motivated behaviour and identifying patterns of heightened community tensions. Importantly, they can build a picture of escalating patterns of behaviour and assist police to prevent serious harm. Tragically, numerous inquests and inquiries have found that police failure to recognise and effectively respond to repeated hate incidents has been a contributing factor in preventable deaths. Any further rollout of the Met’s decision to stop investigating NCHIs would have a disastrous impact on tackling anti-LGBT+ hate across England and Wales.

Our submission highlighted four key priorities for change:

·        Equalising hate crime legislation to ensure parity for LGBT+ people by adopting an equal legal approach across all hate crime offences

·        Creating a Hate Crime Commissioner role to drive best practice improvements in policy and victim support

·        Funding for specialist hate crime services to provide support, advice, and advocacy to victims and survivors

·        Training and upskilling police to better identify, understand, and improve the quality of frontline responses to anti-LGBT+ hate crime

What’s next?

The independent review is expected to conclude in Spring 2026, and a final report with findings and recommendations will be submitted to the Home Secretary.

Galop will monitor these developments, and we will continue to support all LGBT+ people who experience hate.