EDUCATION is the key to tackling transgender hate crimes after statistics obtained by the BBC revealed such incidents had risen by 81 per cent.

James Edgington, director and co-founder of Bolton Pride, described the statistics as shocking ­— but he and the organisation were aware that such incidents had increased in recent times.

He called on more to be done to educate people about transgender and questioned why discussing issues such as transgender and sexuality continued to be seen as taboo.

Data obtained by the BBC showed there were 1,944 crimes across 36 forces in the last financial year compared with 1,073 in 2016-2017 highlighting an increase in transphobia.

Greater Manchester Police ­— which covers Bolton ­— recorded a huge increase in hate crimes against transgender people, increasing from 54 in 2016/17 to 88 in 2017-18 and 145 in 2018-19.

Transgender crimes also rose in Lancashire from 69 to 104 in the same period.

Mr Edgington said: "These are obviously shocking statistics but we are aware of this because as an organisation we look to raise awareness of hate crime.

"We have had a couple of reports of transgender hate crime.

"Transgender people are now more visible and more needs to be done to educate people about this.”

A hate crime is defined as "any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice" based on one of five categories: religion, faith or belief; race, ethnicity or nationality; sexual orientation; disability; or gender identity.

Section 146 of The Criminal Justice Act 2003, amended in 2012, says that if an offence is motivated by hostility towards persons who are transgender then prosecutors can apply to the court to increase the offender's sentence.

Mr Edgington said that organisations like the NHS were more supportive and understanding of the issues faced by trans people.

"Education does make a difference," said Mr Edgington, "a campaign against disability hate crime was a success, but for some reason education surrounding sexuality strand of hate crime remains taboo."