Record number of terrorist prisoners

According to figures from the Home Office, there are 125 inmates in UK jails who have been convicted of terror-related offences. The data also shows there are a further 27 convicts on remand or awaiting trial, making a total of 152 convicted individuals, 50 higher than the figure five years ago and a record high. The news comes after the recent publication of the Acheson review, which warned of the growing instances of radicalisation in jails, and the government’s decision to push ahead with specialist high-security units designed to separate the most dangerous inmates. An additional 13 prisoners are serving time for domestic extremism, such as Irish republicanism. The quarterly numbers show that arrests for terror-related offences in the UK had fallen by a third in the year leading to June 2016, from 330 to 222. Of the 62 terrorist trials which took place in the 12 months to June 2016, 54 resulted in a conviction. Data also highlighted that the number of people stopped and searched by the Metropolitan police under counter-terror powers rose by 26 per cent to 552, of which 12 per cent resulted in an arrest. However, despite the increase, this is still half the level of 1,154 ‘section 43’ anti-terror stop and searches carried out by the Met in 2010/11, but with a far lower arrest rate. The number of people stopped and examined at airports and ports on their way in and out of the UK has falled by 23 per cent in the year to June 2016 to 23,300 examinations under the Terrorism Act 2000.