Terror watchdog accuses Met over stop and search abuses

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Lord Carlile of Berriew said he believed that too many people in the capital were being stopped under controversial Section 44 provisions — which are designed to tackle terrorism — when there was no legitimate reason to do so.

The peer, the independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, added that use of the powers, which allow officers to conduct searches without reasonable suspicion, appeared to being deployed as a device for getting around normal policing rules.

Lord Carlile's warning, which will be echoed in his forthcoming annual report on the operation of anti-terrorism laws, follows the Met's pledge last week to scale back its use of the Section 44 searches following a sharp rise in such checks since the failed Haymarket and Glasgow bombings of 2007.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice showed that the surge in searches led to a 322 per cent rise in black people being checked and a 277 per cent in searches of Asians, compared with an 185 per cent increase for white people.

In response to concern about this disproportionate increase, the Met — which has conducted a total of 154,293 Section 44 stop and searches since 2007 — has now said that it aims to restrict use of the tactic to key locations instead of as a "blanket" tactic across the capital.

Lord Carlile said: "This power has been used far more widely in London than in other comparable cities — even allowing for the larger number of potential targets in London — and it remains very important that its use is restricted and that it is only deployed when it is genuinely justified."

In other comments, he also called for greater funding for Muslim women's groups to help them combat radicalisation. He said that many Muslim women were "very worried" about the risk of their children being radicalised but said there were a lack of funds to help them.