Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on the Number of Hate Crimes That Have Been Investigated in the Past Five Years, by Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Question:

Dr Tan Yia Swam: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) in the past five years, how many cases of hate crimes have been investigated; and (b) of these cases, how many have been (i) issued warning letters (ii) issued compound fines (iii) prosecuted and fines issued and (iv) prosecuted and jail terms issued respectively.

Answer:

1.   ‘Hate crime’ can refer to any crime where victims are targeted because of an attribute that they hold, such as their race, religion, nationality, gender, age, or any other form of identity or belief.

2.   In our crime statistics, we do not track the offenders’ motivation behind targeting their victims.

3.   That said, we can use sections 298 and 298A of the Penal Code – which cover acts that affect racial and religious harmony – as proxies for racial and religious hate crime.

4.   In the last five years, Police investigated a total of 143 cases under sections 298 and 298A of the Penal Code. Of these, 55 cases resulted in warning.  None were compounded. Two cases were fined, five cases were jailed, and five cases were fined and jailed. These figures do not include cases where investigations are still ongoing, or where no further action was taken.