PEOPLE are being encouraged to report hate crimes by the organisations and agencies working to makes sure victims are supported and suspects brought to justice.

Enfield Hate Crime Forum met this week to explore the issue in the borough, defined as a crime motivated by prejudice and ignorance.

At the meeting, community safety manager at Enfield Council, Mark Sanger, said the forum brought together community partners to identify barriers to effective performance.

He was joined at the meeting by representatives from the council's community safety unit, the police, Enfield Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network, Enfield Disability Action, Enfield Racial Equality Council, and Vic-tim Support Enfield, which set out ways hate crime incidents are managed in Enfield and where they happen.

Based on the British crime survey, it is estimated four out of five hate crimes go unreported or unrecorded.

In Enfield, while racially-motivated crimes have decreased, figures show other hate crimes - homoph-obic, faith-related or sectarian incidents - have remained constant or increased over the last couple of years.

John Foulkes, from the police community safety unit, said the police had a good record of making arrests on hate crime.

And Rasheed Sadegh-Zadeh, of Victim Support Enfield, praised the work of the police's community safety unit.

Mr Foulkes said: "The message, from my point of view, is please report it.

"We take it very, very seriously and we won't accept in this borough people committing racial crime or crimes against people with disabilities, or crime against anybody else."