Number of teens arrested on terror offences has doubled

In total 56 teenagers have been arrested between April 2014 and April 2015, more than double the previous number of 26 according to figures obtained by Channel 4 News from the police.

The latest statistics underline how difficult it has become to counter the attraction of jihad and the idea of an Islamic caliphate as propagated online by Islamic State militants.

Scotland Yard today said the rise in the number of teenagers arrested is an “emerging trend”.

Overall the numbers of arrests are at record levels with 338 people of all ages held in the last year alone.

The arrests range from offences linked to plotting attacks through to fundraising for terrorism.

Terror arrests among those in the 21-39 age group were up from 176 to 223 arrest in the past year. Numbers for those older than 40 rose only slightly from 52 to 59.

1 in 10 of the people arrested were women and there were 89 convictions for terrorism offences in the past year.

New powers

The Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner for specialist crime and operations, Mark Rowley, said that new powers may be needed in order to force Brits to take part in deradicalisation programmes.

Rowley said: “Do we need a mandatory counter-radicalisation programme that we can force people on to?

“The number of people who have travelled to Syria has passed 700, in terms of those who are of significant concern to us and the security services.

“They are not aid workers or visiting relatives, they are people of real concern that they are getting involved in fighting or are supportive of it. They are potential terrorist suspects.”

Mr Rowley indicated that hundreds may have already returned to the UK.