On 24th November, Lord Sheikh was elected co-chair for the re-constituted APPG on Hate Crime. 

In his opening on the inaugural meeting, Lord Sheikh paid tribute to Paula Sheriff MP, who had previously chaired the APPG but whom unfortunately list her seat. He also paid tribute to Iman Atta and Fiyaz Moghul from faith matters, for all the work they do in combatting hate crimes and providing secretariat support for the APPG. 

Lord Sheikh emphasised that he is greatly concerned by hate crimes, and has spoken on the issue several times in the House of Lords and at other meetings.  He has also felt with cases where people have been subject to hate crimes.   

One of the points raised by Lord Sheikh was that data produced by the Home Office shows that increases in police recorded hate crimes have increased year on year since 2012, yet many cases still go unreported. For example, the charity Galop has revealed in the last 12 months, 4 out every 5 of transgender people in the UK have experienced hate crimes but only 1 in 7 transgender victims actually go to the police. Furthermore, according to figures from the Crown Prosecution Service there is a growing gap between the number of hate crimes reported to the police and the number of cases being sent to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Importantly, Lord Sheikh stated that “Hate crime is more prevalent than we think, and what we know is only the tip of the iceberg of a much greater issue.This is an incredibly important issue and I would like this APPG to be a robust body in improving how we understand and approach hate crime.”