The number of racially and religiously aggravated offences recorded by Hertfordshire Constabulary dropped in 2020, figures have shown.

While the majority of police forces in England recorded a rise in reports, Hertfordshire witnessed the joint-third biggest decline, following analysis of data supplied by 43 police forces.

However, officers in Hertfordshire still recorded 898 racially and religiously aggravated offences in 2020 - which is a 13 per cent drop on the 1,038 recorded in 2019,

The figures are from police-recorded crime data for England and Wales published by the Home Office and cover five types of offences, all of which have a specific racially or religiously motivated element defined by statute.

The five offences are racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury, without injury, harassment, criminal damage, or reason to cause public fear, alarm, or distress.

Ten of the 43 police forces which responded recorded a reduction in reports - the biggest unsurprisingly being the City of London where reports were down 49 per cent on 2019 and British Transport Police where it was down 35 per cent.

Next was Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire with a drop of 13 per cent.

Of the 43 forces that did provide data, 33 reported a rise in racially and religiously aggravated offences from 2019 to 2020, while 30 forces saw numbers last year reach a new high. In total, reports were up 7 per cent.

The data, compiled by the PA news agency, comes as England deals with the fallout of online racist abuse suffered by three black footballers who missed penalties in the Three Lions' Euro 2020 final against Italy at Wembley.

Meanwhile, an additional list showing the number of racially and religiously aggravated recorded by police forces in 2020 that were assigned the outcome "investigation complete – no suspect identified" has also been compiled.

In Hertfordshire, 148 (16 per cent) of the 898 offences recorded were assigned this outcome.

The lowest proportion was in West Mercia where 14 per cent of cases were closed and no suspect identified.

Responding to the national data, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for hate crime, Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, said: "Over recent years police have worked hard to improve our response to hate crime, including better recording of offences and more training for officers.

"We are working with forces to help them understand and improve the service they provide to victims.

"Targeting someone because of their race or other characteristic is completely unacceptable and should not be tolerated. Everyone has the right to live their lives without fear of being attacked, either physically, verbally or online.

"Police take all reports of threats and abuse seriously and we will work to bring perpetrators to justice. I encourage all victims to report to the police by calling 101 or online at True Vision: www.report-it.org.uk."

Full list of police force data for racially or religiously aggravated offences. The first number is from 2019 and the second is from 2020

Avon & Somerset: 1,741; 1,936; 11%

Bedfordshire: 748; 649; -13%

British Transport Police: 2,668; 1,732; -35%

Cambridgeshire: 772; 790; 2%

Cheshire: 982; 999; 2%

Cleveland: 624; 631; 1%

Cumbria: 314; 375; 19%

Derbyshire: 617; 648; 5%

Devon & Cornwall: 795; 791; -1%

Dorset: 325; 464; 43%

Durham: 404; 411; 2%

Dyfed-Powys: 239; 355; 49%

Essex: 1,577; 1,821; 15%

Gloucestershire: 339; 384; 13%

Gwent: 383; 422; 10%

Hampshire: 1,471; 1,652; 12%

Hertfordshire: 1,035; 898; -13%

Humberside: 754; 918; 22%

Kent: 1,642; 1,513; -8%

Lancashire: 1,099; 1,186; 8%

Leicestershire: 714; 1,297; 82%

Lincolnshire: 301; 316; 5%

London, City of: 138; 70; -49%

Merseyside: 1,671; 1,880; 13%

Metropolitan Police: 14,051; 15,101; 7%

Norfolk: 497; 594; 20%

North Wales: 401; 420; 5%

North Yorkshire: 323; 412; 28%

Northamptonshire: 611; 865; 42%

Northumbria: 1,331; 1,466; 10%

Nottinghamshire: 880; 897; 2%

South Wales: 1,075; 1,157; 8%

South Yorkshire: 1,329; 1,568; 18%

Staffordshire: 855; 811; -5%

Suffolk: 441; 493; 12%

Surrey: 1,041; 1,179; 13%

Sussex: 1,304; 1,373; 5%

Thames Valley: 1,874; 2,069; 10%

Warwickshire: 395; 390; -1%

West Mercia: 836; 757; -9%

West Midlands: 4,145; 5,115; 23%

West Yorkshire: 4,681; 4,627; -1%

Wiltshire: 402; 419; 4%

Total: 57,825; 61,851; 7%