Use (and abuse?) of anti-terrorism powers by police

A Home Office report on the operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation has revealed that in 2009/10 a total of 101,248 stop-and-searches were made pursuant to s40 of the Terrorism Act 2000, but not one of the stop-and-searches resulted in an arrest being made on a terrorism charge.

Indeed, only 506 arrests were made, representing 0.5% of the stop-and-searches.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 provides officers with the power to stop and search people and vehicles for the purpose of searching for articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism.  In July 2010 the Home Secretary announced that the use of s44 powers would be suspended.

See further section 7.7.1 of the Privacy Law Handbook