THERE has been a sharp fall in the number of hate crimes being reported to Hampshire Police.

New figures show recorded crime against people because of their race, faith and sexual orientation all fell in 2011.

Disability and transgender-related crime was also down.

Hate crimes are offences perceived to be motivated by "hostility based on a person's race, religious belief, sexual orientation, disability or where the victim was perceived to be transgender", the Association of Police Officers, which compiled the figures, said.

A total of 796 were recorded in 2010, down from 1,192 the previous year.

This reflected a fall nationally, form 48,127 to 44,519.

The reduction was welcomed, but there were fears many crimes are still going unreported.

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris, of ACPO, said: "While we would obviously want to see reductions in the incidence of all hate crime, we know that disability hate crimes have been significantly under-reported in the past."

Earlier this month a UKIP candidate for the role of Humberside's Police and Crime Commissioner was branded "not fit for office" after saying he would scrap the separate recording of hate crime if elected.

Meanwhile, separate figures, recorded by the Home Office, also showed a reduction in the number of reported 'racist incidents' in the county.

These are measured differently to hate crimes, and classed as any incident where the motivation is perceived to be based on somebody's race.

In Hampshire last year police recorded 1,429 racist incidents, a drop of 62 from 2010.