21st March
Police are foiling a terrorism plot as big as the 7 July attacks every year, a senior officer has said. Mr Osborne, the UK’s senior national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism, said Islamic extremists were planning in smaller groups to avoid detection. This came as the Home Office revealed the number of terror arrests had risen by 60% in the year to September 2012. The total of people held on suspicion of terrorism-related offences over the 12 months to September 2012, rose to 245 from 153 the previous year. Of those arrested, 45 (18%) were charged with a terror-related offence, with 10 convicted and 25 awaiting trial. One of the remaining 10 had been acquitted, while the other nine had been convicted over non-terror related offences. There were 134 prisoners classified as terrorists or domestic extremists by the end of September last year. A total of 2,291 terrorism arrests had been made since the September 11 attacks on America in 2001. The report however highlighted that the special police powers to stop and search people for terrorist material had not been used once since they were introduced in March 2011.
