Equalities Secretary Shona Robison and Community Safety Minister Roseanna Cunningham met with LGBT and disability organisations in Glasgow on Friday 13 June in Glasgow to hear what members reactions were to the release of this year's hate crime figures. These figures showed a 12% increase in the reporting of disabled hate crime. Robert Ferguson, Disability Access Officer for the Scottish Disability Equality Forum said:

"We at the SDEF welcome any rise in reporting figures, albeit we recognise that there is still a long way to go and a lot of work to do to make those figures truly reflective of the problems suffered by disabled people. Disabled people suffer from discrimination every day, and the fact that more hate crimes are being reported mean that the reporting system is finally becoming more user friendly and more disabled people feel able to report incidents. We have long felt that disability hate crime has been hugely under reported, which is why our program of working with Police Scotland is so important. Using this program, local Access Panels get free training from Police Scotland allowing them to be recognised as 3rd party hate crime reporting centres. This means that disabled people can report incidents in an environment they are comfortable in, and feel secure in doing so. The rise in reporting figures shows why it is so important to have these centres, so as to increase the number of ways hate crime can be reported. We look forward to working with Ministers and Police Scotland to promote this."