The number of people arrested in the UK for terror-related offenses jumped by 54 percent in the last year and, according to a leading academic, Britain is facing its biggest threat since 2001.
Official figures on the arrests made in Britain under the 2000 Terrorism Act over the last 12 months were released by the Home Office on Thursday, December 7.
Anthony Glees, a Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham and director of its Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said the increase was “definitely not for show.”
The surge in arrests can be attributed to more people reporting to the police, or better intelligence-led policing, he explained, noting:
“I suspect we need to listen to what the Director General of MI5 said a few weeks ago — that this was happening at a ‘scale and pace we’ve not seen before’, a tempo unique in his 34 years in MI5,” Dr. Glees told.