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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his Answer of 15 January 2004, Official Report, column 894W, on the Terrorism Act, if he will break down, by region, the stops and searches carried out since 2001 under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000; what reasons were given for using these powers; and what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increases. [150329] Mr. Blunkett: A breakdown of stop and searches by Police Force area under section 44(1) and section 44(2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 for the financial years 2001-02 and 2002-03 is provided in the table. This is taken from information published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin. Stop and Searches under Section 44(1) or (2) may only be exercised for the purposes of searching for articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism. The decision to authorise use of the powers is made against the background of the current threat level and the assessment of the risk to any designated or whole force area. The increase in stops and searches can be attributed to an increase in general security throughout the year following September 11 (2001). _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Stop and Searches of vehicles and occupants under Stop and Searches of pedestrians under 44(2) 44(1) Police force area 2001-02 2002-03 2001-02 2002-03 Avon and Somerset -- -- -- -- Bedfordshire 8 31 -- -- Cambridgeshire -- -- -- -- Cheshire 385 302 2 18 Cleveland -- -- -- -- Cumbria -- -- -- Derbyshire 20 -- -- -- Devon and Cornwall 129 -- -- -- Dorset -- -- -- -- Durham 235 -- 3 -- Essex -- 2 -- 5 Gloucestershire 36 898 -- -- Greater Manchester 36 210 -- 299 Hampshire 10 256 2 38 Hertfordshire 4 -- -- -- Humberside -- -- -- -- Kent 255 67 2 74 Lancashire -- 155 -- -- Leicestershire1 68 45 68 Lincolnshire -- -- -- -- London, City of 3,409 4,369 86 275 Merseyside -- -- -- -- Metropolitan 3,598 19,677 473 3,764 Norfolk 2 5 -- -- Northamptonshire -- -- -- -- Northumbria -- -- -- -- North Yorkshire 8 110 -- -- Nottinghamshire -- -- -- -- South Yorkshire 263 105 -- -- Staffordshire -- -- -- -- Suffolk -- 3 -- -- Surrey 1 31 1 36 Sussex 767 113 310 238 Thames Valley -- 900 -- -- Warwickshire -- -- -- -- West Mercia 5 -- -- -- West Midlands -- 16 -- 20 West Yorkshire -- 18 -- -- Wiltshire -- -- -- -- Dyfed Powys -- -- -- -- Gwent -- -- -- 7 North Wales -- -- -- -- South Wales -- -- -- -- Total 9,239 27,313 947 4,774 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Stops and searches of vehicles and occupants and pedestrians are not separately available for 2002-03

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

417 c268-9W; 150329

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Powers Terrorism Stop and search Right of search

Legislation

Terrorism Act 2000

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk