REPORTS of hate crime against transgender people in Greater Manchester have risen by 168 per cent since 2016, a report going before Manchester council says.

The number of reports rose from 54 in 2016-17 to 145 in 2018-19. The jump in numbers is the third highest in the UK, after London and West Yorkshire, according to a town hall document that’s going before councillors next week.

Manchester’s Community Safety Partnership – which is made up of council teams and Greater Manchester Police – attributes the rise to ‘increased confidence and ability of trans people to report hate crime’.

But the document added that this group in Manchester faces ‘considerable challenges in terms of opportunities and outcomes, as is the case nationally and internationally’

The Crime Prosecution Service says the term ‘hate crime’ can be used to describe a ‘range of criminal behaviour where the perpetrator is motivated by hostility or demonstrates hostility towards the victim’s disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity’.

Transgender charity Sparkle has warned the true number of incidents could be much higher than those reported to the police. Lee Clatworthy, Sparkle’s vice-chair, said: “The extraordinary rise in reported transphobic hate crime demonstrates the increased hostility towards gender non-conforming people.”

“We also know that many of these hate crimes and hate incidents go unreported, due to continuing distrust of the police by some sections of the community, such as those from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and the fact that verbal abuse and the threat of violence is now a part of everyday life for most trans folk,” he added.