Effectivness of S.44 Terrorism Act

Terence Eden made this Freedom of Information request to British Transport Police

The request was partially successful.

From: Terence Eden

4 September 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

BTP Officers have recently been performing random stop and searches
under S.44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. According to the officer in
this video: http://tinyurl.com/6m4jv4 - every 20th person is
stopped.

Please can you provide all or part of the following information.

1) The number of such searches undertaken since the implementation
of the Terrorism Act 2000.

2) The number of such searches which have resulted in further
action.

3) For those searches, what action was taken (arrest, caution etc).

4) If any arrests have been made - how many were on terrorism
related charges.

5) Of those arrested on terrorism charges, how many have been
successfully prosecuted.

6) Guidance provided to BTP officers on how to "randomly" select
people to be searched.

I would appreciate a reply in electronic format.

Yours faithfully,

Terence Eden

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James Bridle left an annotation (16 September 2008)

I'm currently covering related issues and FOI requests at http://44searches.wordpress.com/ - let me know when you have a response.

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Christopher left an annotation (16 September 2008)

James, you can automatically be notified of changes (via email or RSS) by using the links at the top right of each request page.

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Terence Eden left an annotation ( 2 October 2008)

Have spoken to Vanessa Osborne who claims not to have received this request. I will resend both to her direct email address (firstname.lastname) and the office FoI address which is foi@btp.pnn.police.uk

She claims that they have a backlog of over a hundred FoI requests but were getting through them as best they can.

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From: Terence Eden

2 October 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

After my conversation with Vanessa Osborne earlier today, I
understand that you did not receive this original request.

Hence, I am resubmitting it to you. The original request can be
found at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/28...

I am also sending this privately to ensure it reaches you. Please
reply via www.whatdotheyknow.com by reply of email.

Yours sincerely,

Terence Eden

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2 October 2008

Sent request to British Transport Police again, using a new contact address.

2 October 2008

Sent a follow up to British Transport Police again, using a new contact address.

From: Terence Eden

27 November 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of British Transport
Police's handling of my FOI request 'Effectivness of S.44 Terrorism
Act'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ef...

Yours sincerely,

Terry Eden

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Terence Eden left an annotation (10 February 2009)

Spoken to Vanessa Osborne today on +44 20 7830 6731.

Apparently her colleague is dealing this request. I'll have an answer by the end of tomorrow.

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Terence Eden left an annotation (16 February 2009)

[Just received this from the BTP]
Dear Mr Eden

Please accept my apologies that British Transport Police did not deal with your case within the statutory timescale laid down within the Freedom of Information Act. Unfortunately the reason for this was your request was closed accidentally. If you wish to make a complaint you can write to the Information Commissioner using the complaint form which can be found at https://forms.ico.gov.uk/freedom-of-info... . I would have phoned to contact you; however, I do not have a telephone number.

In the meantime I will endeavour to answer your questions as quickly as possible and will send a formal reply as soon as possible. In respect of your questions I can supply the following information initially:

Question 1

It is not possible to state the number of searches undertaken using Section 44

Terrorism Act 2000 since Act came into existence. Initially BTP only held data for a

12 month period in line with the same period that a stopped person can make an application for details of the stop. I will make enquiries to see what statistical data is still held, however, since 2005 that data has now been recorded and included in BTP’s annual report. The figures are:

2005/2006 45000 stops

2006/2007 30000 stops

2007/2008 66000 stops

Question 2/3/4/5

It is not possible to supply this information as it is not possible to cross reference Stop and Search data to arrest data. To ascertain this information would require data from each stop to be checked manually to see if an arrest took place. I will expand on this in my formal reply.

Question 6

I am in the process of locating the latest guidance in respect of S44 and will forward these with BTP’s formal reply.

Brian Coleman BA MSc
Information Standards Manager

Information Standards Unit
British Transport Police
25 Camden Road
London
NW1 9LN

Tel 020 7830 6751

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