British police arrested 280 terror suspects last year, including 45 women and 16 children, Home Office figures reveal.
Although the total number of arrests has fallen slightly, there has been a surge in the number of female suspects and under-18s detained, as well as an increase in arrests relating to “international” terrorism.
The number of under-18s arrested is the highest since the Terrorism Act was introduced 16 years ago, while 124 people aged 18 to 29 were also detained.
Out of those detained, 83 were charged with terror offences leading to 38 convictions last year.
The figures also show that over half of those arrested (148) last year were recorded by police as being of “Asian” appearance, with 44 of them being charged and 21 convicted.
The vast majority of arrests were for what the Home Office terms “international” terrorism – which is terror activity “linked to or motivated by any terrorist group that is based outside the UK which operates in and from third countries.” This would include organisations such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
In fact, the overall drop in the number of arrests may be due to a fall in the number of arrests for “domestic” terrorism which has fallen by nearly half since 2014. The number of white suspects also fell.
In December, Breitbart London reported how an analysis of terror arrests over the previous two years revealed London, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire to be the UK’s jihad hotspots.
London accounted for about 40 per cent of the terror arrests in the previous 18 months, with a significant number also taking place in Birmingham and Manchester, as well as smaller numbers in cities such as Cardiff, Rochdale and Portsmouth.
The analysis also found a statistically significant increase in the number of jihadists who were female, making up over 23 per cent of suspects detained.