The Newspapers and TV media have been full of comment about the figures released by the Home Office on Monday with regard to arrests made under anti-terror laws between 9/11 and the end of 2006, and for the life of me I cannot make these figures add up. 

This has been bothering me now for a couple of days, so I went back to the original BBC News website and printed off the article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6420915.stm

 

The BBC tell us, and I assume that they have transposed figures obtained from the Home Office, that

A total of 1166 were detained. 

221 were charged, but 186 of those faced non-terrorism charges.

That therefore leaves 35 on terrorism charges. 

How then can that lead to 40 convictions on terrorism charges ?? and 180 convictions under other legislation, that adds up to 220.  Have the Home Office lost one already ?

Looking through the prece in this article I cannot make that add up either. 

98 who are on or awaiting trial.

652 of those arrested released without charge.

186 charged with non terror related offences

74 handed over to immigration.

This equals 1010.  Which means they have now lost 156 people. 

Do the people at the Home Office go to University to learn their maths, or does it come quite naturally. If this is an example of how we calculate our prison figures, I estimate we should have 20,000 spare prison places and therefore don’t need to spend millions on building new ones.
 

Back to the Home Office chaps, and can we please have the real figures.
 

Oh, and if they feeling pleased with the results of all this expensive intelligence led police work, consider that 40 convictions out of 1166 arrests only equals a 3.5pct conviction rate.

Just where is the intelligence in that.  It really does sound more like dragnet fishing to see what comes in with the net.

Lies, damn Lies and Statistics ??