To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) arrested and (b) convicted for offences relating to comments posted on social networking websites under counter-terrorism legislation. (313338)

The Home Office does not hold statistics which are recorded in this way. However, the Home Office does collate statistics on the number of terrorism arrests and convictions and these are included in a bulletin published for the first time on 13 May 2009 (Statistics on Terrorism Arrests and Outcomes Great Britain 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008). The first edition of the bulletin is available at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb0409.pdf

The second issue of the bulletin was published on 26 November 2009 and is available via the following link:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/hosb1809.pdf