The committee heard of race hate crime in Northern Ireland

There is a significant and rapidly growing problem of 'hate crime' in Northern Ireland according to a new report.

The parliamentary report said that present police figures for race-related and homophobic incidents underestimate the scale of the problem.

It also calls for the government to change the proposed legislation on 'hate crime' to give better protection to disabled people.

The Northern Ireland Affairs committee which produced Friday's report said that widespread under-reporting of attacks may mean the present police figures underestimate the problem of racial and homophobic incidents by a considerable margin.

It called on the police to tackle the issue more vigorously than they have been doing.

The committee said the government needed to include attacks on the disabled in the draft Criminal Justice (NI) Order, to be introduced later this year.

The planned legislation would require judges to take into account any racial, religious or sexual orientation factors when sentencing.

Committee chairman Michael Mates said on Friday that members believed it was "untenable for the government to have legislation in place which protected disabled people in England and Wales but not to provide such protection in Northern Ireland".

Mr Mates said "compelling" arguments for including attacks on the disabled had been given at its hearings.

We must send the strongest possible signal that such activity is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our society Michael Mates Northern Ireland Affairs Committee

The committee's report said it was "astonishing" that comprehensive statistics on the level of attacks on the disabled in the province were not kept by the government, police, and even disabled support groups.

The committee had heard "credible evidence that disabled people in Northern Ireland do experience a wide range of 'hate crime' attacks," Mr Mates said.

He said including such attacks in the draft legislation would bring the province into line with England and Wales, sending out another signal that "normal rules apply" in Northern Ireland.

The committee believes police figures were underestimating "hate crime" levels by a "considerable margin" because victims were failing to report attacks.

"While the figures may be modest, the upward trend is unmistakable," said Mr Mates.

The committee wants NI to be brought in line with England and Wales

He added: "We must send the strongest possible signal that such activity is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our society."

The committee said it had received evidence that existing legislation was not being used to full effect, with only seven prosecutions arising from 226 racial incidents recorded by the PSNI in 2002/03.

"We understand that not all incidents recorded may necessarily involve criminal offences. Nevertheless the figures for prosecutions appear worryingly small," said the committee report.

It said strong laws and effective police enforcement measures against "hate crime" were required to send the strongest possible signal "that such activity is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

The report added: "We expect to see the problem tackled more vigorously in the future by the Police Service of Northern Ireland than appears to have been the case in the past."