A former senior TV executive is surveying British Jews in a bid to discover why many incidents of UK antisemitism are not reported to the authorities.

Sarah Caplin, a former Deputy Secretary of the BBC and an ITV executive, is trying to survey Jewish communal attitudes as part of her Masters dissertation at the Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, at University College London.

The survey, which takes around 10 minutes to complete, asks questions such as:

- “Do you wear any items that might identify you as Jewish?”

- “Thinking about the last time you were a victim of antisemitic behaviour, did you report it to the police or to someone else who reported it on your behalf?”

Ms Caplin, a former editor of the BBC’s Watchdog programme, told the JC: “It’s really important for the solvability of these crimes [that] they’re reported as soon as possible but there is significant under-reporting of antisemitic incidents.

“If the crime involved is proved to be a faith-hate crime, which means it is religiously aggravated, the sentence can be substantially increased.”

Ms Caplin, who is herself Jewish and helped set up the Childline charity with her cousin, actress Esther Rantzen, said that both the Community Security Trust and Shomrim communal security organisations helped her by suggesting questions that might be useful.

Their involvement had meant that a number of Strictly Orthodox Jews had already taken part in the survey, she added.

The Charedi community is one of the most likely groups to face antisemitism because as they can be easily identified as Jewish.

She has also received help and advice from police in Barnet.

“I am very conscious that feelings and expressions of antisemitism are more prevalent today than at any other time in my life, and I am deeply worried about this situation,” Ms Caplin said.

“My hope is that by exploring why victims and witnesses are reluctant to report incidents, I can help to research better ways to support them. The more incidents that are reported quickly to the police, the better they will be able to respond and deal effectively with the perpetrators."

The survey is available to fill out until the end of the June.