London: The UK has registered a 45 per cent rise in the number of convictions in terror-related offences over the previous year, according to the country's Home Office statistics released on Thursday.
In the 12 months ending September, 2016, 61 out of 67 people put on trial for terror-related cases were convicted. This compares with a tally of 42 convictions in the previous year and amounts to an increase of 45 per cent over 2014-2015.
"There were 67 trials completed by the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division (CPS CTD) in the year ending September 2016. Of these, 61 (91 per cent) led to a conviction," Home Office said in its quarterly assessment.
"The number of persons receiving longer sentences increased compared with the previous year, with those receiving between 4 and 10 years increasing from 8 to 25, and the number of life sentences given increasing from 1 to 9," it adds.
The figures, however, indicate a drop in the number of arrests under the Terrorism Act 2000, falling by a fifth in the year ending September 2016 compared with the previous year from 317 to 255 arrests.
"Although the number of arrests has fallen, it is still relatively high when compared to other recent years," the Home Office said.
It adds: "There were 178 persons in custody for terrorism-related offences and domestic extremism/separatism, up from 170 in the previous year".
"This was driven by an increase in the number of terrorist related prisoners (from 137 to 169), which more than offset the fall in the number of domestic extremist/separatist prisoners (from 33 to 9)," it said.
The proportion of women and girls arrested has fallen slightly to 11 per cent, representing 29 suspects, but the number of under-18s detained has remained static.
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