The police carried out almost 50,000 stop-and-searches under anti-terrorism powers in the year of the July 7 Tube and bus bomb attacks in London, figures published last night show.

But the stop-and-searches led to only 563 arrests, the figures from the Ministry of Justice reveal.

They also show that a quarter of all arrests for offences in England and Wales in 2005-06 were youngsters under 18.

Stop-and-searches by police in England and Wales jumped by more than a third as officers sought to prevent further terror attacks in the country.

Stop-and-searches of people in vehicles and of pedestrians under antiterrorism powers jumped by a third, with searches of Asians almost doubling, from 3,697 in 2004-05 to 6,805 in 2005-06.

Searches of black people for suspected terrorist reasons rose by half, from 2,744 to 4,155 and for white people by a quarter, from 24,782 to 30,837, the report on race and the criminal justice system said. Over half of stop-and-searches under counter-terrorism powers took place in London.

A separate report from the Ministry shows that black people were seven time more likely than whites to be stopped and searched generally by the police last year. The rate was even more disproportionate than in 2005, when it stood at six times more likely.

Asians were about twice as likely to be stopped and searched as whites, about the same as in 2005.

The rise in the number of stops on people from minority ethnic communites was partly explained by the police responding to the July 7 attacks in London, the report on race and the criminal justice system said.

Overall, there were 878,154 stop-and-searches recorded by police in 2006, an increase of 3 per cent on the previous year.

Most of the increase was due to an extra 14,000 black people being targeted by stop and search, a 12 per cent rise, and a 14 per cent increase in the number of Asians being stopped.

The most common reason for conducting a stop-and-search across all ethnic groups was for drugs. At least half of all occasions on which a stop and search was carried out on someone of Asian or black appearance was for drugs. A total of 377,900 stop-and-searches for drugs took place but they led to only 30,400 arrests, one arrest for every 12 stops, the figures show.

Search results

Metropolitan Police 27,516 stop-and-searches, resulting in 327 arrests

Hampshire 7,094 stop-and-searches; 66 arrests

City of London 7,056 stop-and-searches; 65 arrests

Essex 3,081 stop-and-searches; 21 arrests

Surrey 2,361 stop-and-searches; 12 arrests

Times Recommends

• Donor organ allowed child’s own heart to heal
• Michael Jackson: Not the final chapter
• Brüno toned down for 15 rating