THE Home Office has asked police forces to record crimes motivated by hostility based on their sex or gender, it has been revealed.

It comes amid renewed calls to make misogyny a hate crime to tackle the issue of violence against women and girls.

Policing of crime against women has come under scrutiny since the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer.

This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he did not support the calls, saying there is "abundant" existing legislation to tackle violence against women.

This week, the National Police and Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said the Home Office had written to police forces asking them, on an experimental basis, to record and identify any crimes of violence against the person including stalking and harassment and sexual offences, where the victim perceives it to have been motivated by a hostility based on their sex.

North Yorkshire Police is one of the few forces in the country to have published its own "misogyny hate crime" policy, which was introduced in 2017.

And Durham Police has been recording whether a hate crime is gender-based for a number of years, a spokesman for the force said.

Cleveland Police said it would look at the issue amid its wider work around violence against women and girls.

Read the full story here: Police asked to record gender-motivated crimes - on 'experimental' basis

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