To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2008, Official Report, column 738W, on airports: security, what records are kept of passengers arrested while attempting to pass through UK airport security; how many passengers were arrested in the last 12 months; and how many of those have been (a) charged and (b) convicted of an offence. (204195)

The information requested is not held centrally. The police use their powers at an airport in the same way as at any other location as appropriate. Information held by the Ministry of Justice on the number of arrests is based on aggregated data reported by the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Data are collected centrally by main offence group such as violence against the person, sexual offences, drugs offences, etc. It is not possible to determine from these data the circumstances or location of an arrest, such as an airport.