"We don't know whether there's been an increase in hate crime or a decrease in hate crime, or if it's just the same,"Professor Asquith said.
"It can cause significant damage to social order and police-community relations."
"It actually affirms to the victim that they are seen, they are heard, they are recognised when they have something that is assault with motivated hate or animus or prejudice."
"To implement these recommendations, we are progressing amendments to the Sentencing Act 1997 to ensure sentencing takes into account the aggravating factor of targeted, hateful or prejudicial offending."
"There should also be community education campaigns about the deep trauma caused by hate crime against members of minority communities,"Mr Croome said.
"So it doesn't rely on that first reporting officer to have all the knowledge that they require to actually process that case as a hate crime."
"It's about trying to increase the awareness so that possibly we don't have to go down the criminal justice route,"she said.