Police Scotland has been accused of racial profiling after it emerged that people from minority ethnic backgrounds were up to 20 times more likely to be stopped under counterterrorism powers.
Some 1,371 passengers were intercepted by police using counterterrorism powers at Scottish ports and airports during peak travel months from 2016 to 2021, with almost half recorded as being of minority ethnic descent.
Ethnic minorities made up 4 per cent of Scotland’s population in the 2011 census, the last reliable measure of Scottish demographics.
Details of the figures, released after an intervention by the Scottish Information Commissioner after a joint investigation by The Times Scotland and Liberty Investigates, an independent investigative journalism unit, showed that 46 per cent of those stopped under Schedule 7 powers
