Jewish people are the second most targetted group for religious hate crime, new statistics show, amid a 40 per cent rise in such offences in just one year.

The latest annual Home Office statistics - the first to detail cases of Jew-hate - show the number of offences has hit a record-high, with more than half of religiously-motivated attacks in 2017-18 directed at Muslims.

In a further worrying development, the figures showed that there were 672 religious hate crimes recorded by police against Jews in the same period.

This amounted to 12 per cent of the 5,680 religious hate crimes recorded from May 2017 to April 2018. The statistics showed 52 per cent, or 2,965 recorded incidents were Islamophobia.

The report noted that 4.8 per cent of the population identified as Muslim in England and Wales  - while a far smaller 0.5 per cent perceived themselves to be Jewish.

In the report, it says: “In 2017/18, where the perceived religion of the victim was recorded, just over half (52%) of religious hate crime offences were targeted against Muslims (2,965 offences).

"This is a much greater proportion than the proportion of the population on England and Wales that identify as Muslims. In the 2011 Census, 4.8 per cent of the population of England and Wales identified as Muslim.

“The next most commonly targeted group were Jewish people, who were targeted in 12 per cent of religious hate crimes (672 offences). Around 0.5% of the population in England and Wales identified as Jewish in the 2011 Census.”

A spokesperson for the Community Security Trust welcomed the publication of the statistics, telling the JC: “CST has long urged the Home Office to separate out these figures, so as we can make comparisons each year and identify trends over time.

“This has now happened and we can already see the significant over-representation of Jews as the target for hate crimes. We will continue working with Police and Government to do all that we can to reverse this situation.”        

Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl said: “Today’s shocking revelations of a 40% rise in religious hate crime must serve as an urgent call to action. All of us – faith leaders, politicians, and the media – should today step up our efforts to stamp out this cancer in our society. The figures reveal that the most commonly targeted groups are Muslims and Jews. The Jewish community will continue to work in solidarity with Muslims and people of all faiths. We cannot let Britain become a place where a Hijab or a Kippah marks someone out as a target.”

In April 2016, the Home Office began collecting information from the police on the perceived religion of victims of religious hate crime.

While in the majority of offences the perceived and actual religion of the victim will be the same, in some cases this will differ.

For example, if anti-Muslim graffiti is sprayed on a religious temple of another faith, this would be recorded as an offence of racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage and flagged by the respective police force as a religious hate crime against Muslims.

The collection of these data became mandatory in 2017/18.

Police recorded a total of 94,098 hate crimes – more than double the total five years ago – and all categories saw a rise.

“This increase is thought to be largely driven by improvements in police recording, although there has been spikes in hate crime following certain events such as the EU referendum and the terrorist attacks in 2017,” the Home Office document said.

Three quarters of the crimes were recorded as racially motivated, which rose by 14 per cent this year.

The figures were released the day after the government announced a wide-ranging review of hate crime laws, which will consider whether to add new “protected characteristics” including age and gender.