Terrorism: Stop and Search

(asked on 23rd November 2016) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many arrests have been made as a result of the exercise of powers to stop and search under the Terrorism Act 2006 in each of the last three years for which figures are available.


Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 12th December 2016

Police stop and search powers are provided for within the following Sections of the Terrorism Act (2000): 43 (search of persons), 43a (search of vehicles) and 47a (authorisations to search persons and vehicles without suspicion within a specified area).

Searching of persons and vehicles without suspicion has not been used by police forces in Great Britain since March 2011 and the Home Office does not collate or collect data on vehicle searches. The Home Office collects data on searches of persons from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The number of people arrested by the MPS following stop and search was:

• 23 in the year 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014;

• 33 in the year 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015; and

• 64 in the year to 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016.

Further information can be found in the Home Office Quarterly Statistical Bulletin, including data relating to stop and search powers. The most recent was published on 22 September 2016. It can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/collection/counter-terrorism-statistics.

Reticulating Splines