Stop and search figures drop

The use of stop and search powers has fallen by 21%

The number of people stopped and searched by police has fallen to its lowest level since 1997, according to Home Office figures.

Police in England and Wales used their stop and search powers 857,000 times in the year 1999/2000, compared with nearly one point one million the previous year.

The 21% fall in the use of the controversial tactic - which has been criticised for its disproportionate use against ethnic minorities - resulted in 11% fewer arrests.

It was the lowest number since 1997 but still far higher than some previous annual figures, which rose from 202,000 in 1989 to 690,000 in 1995.

It calls into real question the need for such extensive stop and search

Associate director of Liberty, Mary Cunneen

The number of times the Metropolitan Police used stop and search fell by 40% in 1999/2000.

Police implementation of stop and search was criticised in the Macpherson report, published after an inquiry into the death of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The report accused the Metropolitan Police of "institutional racism" and stressed the "countrywide" incidence of stops and searches among ethnic minorities as one of the instances in which this was evident.

The associate director of civil rights group Liberty, Mary Cunneen, said: "Though there has been an improvement, 87% of people who are stopped and searched are not arrested.

"It calls into real question the need for such extensive stop and search."