Antisemitic attacks in Manchester are bucking the trend and rising, while hate crime of other kinds is decreasing, according to the latest figures.
Annual crime statistics released by the Home Office yesterday reveal that overall hate crime incidents fell in Greater Manchester by a dramatic 15.5 per cent between 2010 and 2011. But according to the Community Security Trust's latest figures, published in March, antisemitic incidents in Greater Manchester rose by around five per cent.

There were 216 antisemitic incidents across Manchester in 2010, compared with 206 the previous year. The figure had already risen by more than 60 per cent from 125 in 2008. The Home Office figures now show that more than one in 20 of the region's recorded 3,711 hate crimes are directed against Jews, the highest ratio in recent years.

The CST's antisemitic incident report for 2010 indicated that Manchester's Jewish community saw its highest ever number of attacks recorded. But the CST said that the increase is partly attributed to more reports reaching them, and improved data exchange with the police.

The high figure comes against a backdrop of falling hate crime elsewhere. In London, both general hate crime and antisemitism have fallen dramatically, according to the CST and the Metropolitan Police.

Although CST were not able to get a detailed breakdown of the Manchester figures at the time of going to press, its spokesman said: "CST believes that recent rises in Manchester's antisemitic incident statistics are largely due to co-operation and trust between the visibly Jewish community, local police and local CST. This relationship keeps on improving and has resulted in relatively good rates of reporting."