- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 November 2009 14.26 GMT
Metropolitan police officers on a stop and search operation in south London. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA
There has been a sharp fall this year in the police use of counter-terror stop and search powers in the wake of a public outcry over their discriminatory nature, according to Home Office figures.
But the statistics still show that only a tiny proportion – 0.6% – of the searches carried out under anti-terror laws led to an arrest.
During 2008-09 more than 256,000 people were stopped in the street and searched by the police without the need for reasonable grounds of suspicion under section 44 of the Terrorism 2000 Act. This record level of police activity followed the failed bomb attack on a London nightclub in 2007. Only 1,452 of these searches led to an arrest or other action, and the vast majority on matters unrelated to terrorism.
The Home Office figures show that during the first three months of 2009-10 – April to June – total use of section 44 powers amounted to 36,189 people searched, a fall of 37% on the same period a year ago.
The decline follows a decision by the Metropolitan police to scale back their use of these counter-terror powers from across the whole of the capital to a limited number of specified locations, including Westminster. Lord West of Spithead, the Home Office minister for counter-terrorism, is among those who have recently found themselves being searched under these powers.
An ethnic group breakdown of the use of stop and search powers shows little change compared with last year, with 15% of those stopped describing themselves as Asian or Asian British, 11% as black or black British, and 61% as white.
The annual Home Office bulletin on the use of counter-terrorism powers across Britain shows that 190 people were arrested on terrorism-related charges in 2008-09, compared with 231 the year before.
Home Office statisticians said that 73 of the 190 – or 38% of those arrested – were charged with an offence, slightly above the arrest-charge ratio of 29% for serious criminal offences. Twenty-eight were charged under the terror laws, a further 12 under related offences such as conspiracy to murder, and 33 for other offences such as breaching the immigration laws.
Thirty-four people whose trials for terrorism offences were completed last year ended with 27 convicted and seven acquitted, a conviction rate of 79%. Since 9/11 the Home Office says that 70% of the 249 people charged with terrorist offences and whose trials have been completed were convicted.
The detailed Home Office figures also disclose that no one was held for longer than 14 days pre-charge detention in 2008-09. Only one person was held for longer than 14 days in 2007-08, and was charged after 19 days. This throws new light on the highly-fractious parliamentary debates last year over the government's failed attempt to extend the maximum period of pre-charge detention from 28 days to 42.
The statistics also show that as of March this year there were 121 terrorist prisoners held in jails in Great Britain, ie excluding Northern Ireland. They include 106 inmates who described themselves as Muslim and one pagan.
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said the welcome dip in the use of section 44 searches was evidence of how indiscriminately the powers were being used previously: "There is scope for them to be cut back even further as the fear remains that section 44 searches are being used for reasons other than they were intended for."