Five gurdwaras and four Hindu temples are among 49 places of worship given £1.6 million to install and upgrade security systems to protect them from hate crime attacks in the United Kingdom.
Recipients of the Places of Worship Security Funding scheme included 27 mosques and 13 churches, the home office said. The scheme provides funding for measures such as CCTV, fencing, gates, alarms and lighting to places vulnerable to hate crime.
Susan Williams, minister for countering extremism, said: “No one should be fearful about practicing their faith. Whether it is a church, a mosque, gurdwara or temple, any place of worship should be a space of reflection and safety”.
“The Places of Worship scheme provides that physical security. However, we can always do more, which is why we want to hear from worshippers about how we can better protect them from these terrible attacks”.
The scheme’s allocation for next year has been doubled to £3.2 million, officials said. In 2018-19, police in England and Wales recorded 103,379 hate crime offences, an increase of 10% on the previous year.