A hate incident is any incident perceived by the victim, or any witnesses, as being motivated by prejudice or hate towards any aspect of a person’s identity. You do not have to be a member of the group the hostility is aimed at.
Hate incidents are motivated by one of the nine protected characteristics in the Equality Act (2010), mentioned above. The incidents take the form of non-criminal offences like social media bullying or verbal comments. Hate incidents themselves don’t break the law.