VIOLENT homophobic crime appears to be on the decrease in West Yorkshire, while other police forces are tackling significant rises in offences.

Hundreds of assaults on gay and lesbian people have been reported to police this year.

Gay rights charities said that while it was "encouraging" that more people were reporting hate crime, many victims felt "silenced" by abuse on the street.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed 17 police forces recorded more violence against the person offences which were classed as homophobic or motivated by a person's sexuality, between January and October, than for the whole of last year.

Scotland Yard recorded 1,073 violent homophobic offences, and Greater Manchester Police recorded 278.

Smaller forces also recorded a high number of offences, including South Wales Police with 162, and Avon and Somerset Police with 147.

But West Yorkshire Police recorded only 40 violent crimes motivated by a person's sexual orientation, compared with 43 last year and 53 in 2012.

Assistant Chief Constable Andy Battle said: "Tackling homophobic violence is a top priority for West Yorkshire Police and it thankfully remains relatively low in the county.

"That does not mean that we will rest on our laurels, and we will continue to take proactive action to reduce instances of the crime. This has included introducing a new online reporting system to help encourage victims and witnesses of such incidents, whether verbal, physical or on social media, to report it to police.

"We have also made improvements in how information about hate incidents are recorded.

"I would appeal to anyone who is the victim of such offences to have the confidence to come forward and report what happened to police. I can reassure victims that you will be listened to and action taken."

In North Yorkshire, there were five recorded homophobic violent crimes, compared with 12 last year and ten in 2012.

Gay rights charity Stonewall warned that homophobic hate crime remained "a real issue in the UK" and authorities must "continue to take this type of vile abuse seriously."

Pudsey Conservative MP Stuart Andrew has previously told how he was subjected to a violent homophobic attack in 1997.

He said: "I was walking home and was knocked unconscious by three men who abused me for being gay and a Tory. My father chased them off and got a fractured skull."