Home Office say drop in Asians arrested on suspicion of terrorism

THE number of Asians arrested on suspicion of terrorism last year decreased, official figures show.

Of the 273 people arrested on suspicion of terror-related activity in Britain last year, 32 per cent were of Asian origin and 43 per cent were white.

The overall number of white suspects held, 118, was down by more than a quarter year-on-year, but it was the third highest for a calendar year since data collection started in 2001, a Home Office report noted.

The total number of terror-related arrests in 2018 was down by 41 per cent on the previous year. This decrease is partly due to the large number of arrests that followed attacks in London and Manchester in 2017, the report noted.

The deputy assistant commissioner, Dean Haydon, counter-terrorism policing’s senior national coordinator, told the Guardian: “We are still seeing an unprecedented level of activity across counter-terrorism policing, and the demands upon our national network have increased by about a third since the start of 2017.

“We may have seen a reduction in the number of arrests in the last 12 months, but we should put that into context by saying that we also prevented 14 Islamist-related and four extreme rightwing plots since March 2017, and are running a record number of more than 700 live investigations.

“The fall was also expected, as the annual arrest stats in 2017 were inflated by the sharp increase in arrests carried out following the terror attacks in London and Manchester.

“The step-change in terrorist activity is matched only by an increased effort from police and security services, who are working tirelessly to bring people to justice – which is evidenced by the impressive conviction rate achieved in the last year.”

The Home Office statistical report showed that 171 arrests were registered in the "international" category. Suspects were either linked to or motivated by terrorist groups based outside the UK, such as Daesh (Islamic State).

Sixty-six arrests were registered in the "domestic" category, which includes cases where there is no connection to either Northern Ireland-related or international terrorism.