§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the recent anti-Semitic attacks on Jews and Jewish property in London. [54221]
§ Angela Eagle[holding answer 7 May 2002]: The Government condemn all acts of racism, anti-Semitism and religious intolerance. We are fully committed to tackling these manifestations of a vile hatred. That is why we extended the scope of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to cover religiously as well as racially aggravated offences and why we increased the maximum penalty for inciting racial hatred from two to seven years imprisonment. The investigation of race hate crime is also 231W a priority for the police, who work closely with the community and who are treating these recent incidents with the seriousness which they clearly deserve.