What the evidence shows

The 1,553% rise is supported by the official tables. The main change in the total is the addition of 3,630 arrests linked to supporting Palestine Action after its ban. Other terrorism-related arrests increased by three. Neither comparison measures how much terrorism occurred.

  • The official total rose from 234 to 3,867 between the years ending June 2025 and June 2026.
  • 94% of the latest total was linked to supporting Palestine Action after its ban on 5 July 2025.
  • Other terrorism-related arrests rose from 234 to 237. Those figures still count arrests, not attacks or guilt.

The GB News headline matches the official figures

The GB News reel's written caption reported almost 3,900 terrorism-related arrests, up more than 1,500% from fewer than 250 a year earlier. Those descriptions match the Home Office figures.

The caption also explicitly said an arrest did not mean everyone was later charged or convicted. We credit that qualification. We checked the written caption and official data, but have not fully checked the reel's audio and video. This is a By the numbers explanation, not a finding that GB News fabricated the figures or deliberately deceived readers.

Sources: GB NewsHome Office

Other terrorism-related arrests changed little

The comparison covers England, Wales and Scotland. The earlier year ran from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025; the latest ran from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. Northern Ireland is not included.

All terrorism-related arrests rose by 3,633, from 234 to 3,867. The Home Office also publishes a separate line excluding arrests linked to supporting Palestine Action. That line rose by three, from 234 to 237, or 1% rounded.

These comparisons answer different questions: what happened to the full arrest count, and what happened to the count outside one named group. Neither answers how many terrorist attacks happened.

Sources: Home OfficeHome Office

Great Britain: terrorism-related arrests, years ending June
What is counted20252026
All terrorism-related arrests2343,867
Not linked to supporting Palestine Action234237

A ban changed what the arrest total included

Palestine Action was banned under terrorism law on 5 July 2025. The official term for that legal designation is proscription. The Home Office identifies the 3,630 support-related arrests as following that change.

The latest total is made up of 3,630 arrests linked to supporting Palestine Action plus 237 other terrorism-related arrests. Dividing 3,630 by 3,867 gives 93.87%, or 94% rounded.

Separating those groups helps explain the published total. It does not tell us what police would have done if the ban had never happened. Nor does it mean there were no earlier investigations involving Palestine Action under other offences.

Sources: Home Office

An arrest record is not proof of an attack or guilt

The Home Office series includes cases judged terrorism-related even when police use powers from other laws. It also includes some formal notices requiring a person to attend court, known as postal charge requisitions and summonses.

A person arrested again on a different occasion for a different offence can be counted again. The total therefore does not necessarily count different people. Being arrested also does not establish guilt.

These rules matter for both comparisons. The 1,553% rise is not a measured rise in terrorist attacks. The smaller rise of three arrests is not evidence that terrorism itself increased by only 1%. The tables do not decide whether the ban was justified or what happened in each case.

Sources: Home Office

Related figures: hate crime is a separate measure

The GB News caption also reported figures from a separate Home Office release. Police recorded 146,825 hate-crime offences in England and Wales in the year ending March 2026, up 7% from the previous year. Recorded race hate crime rose 9% and religious hate crime 13%. Those headline figures are supported too.

These are recorded offences, rather than arrests, and they cover a different place and period. They cannot be added to the arrest total or used to show that one trend caused the other.

Reporting and police recording practices affect the totals, so they are not a complete count of hate crime in society. That limitation does not establish that the reported rise was merely a recording effect.

Sources: Home OfficeHome Office

What we checked and what an update would need

Checked: the GB News caption and the Home Office releases published on 8 October 2026. The original annual tables reproduce the total, the 94% share and the separate 234-to-237 comparison. The saved source files and calculations let readers repeat those checks.

Still unclear: the complete presentation of the reel, which we have not fully assessed. These totals alone also cannot establish the number of separate people arrested, attacks, guilt or what would have happened without the ban.

Any later update needs to compare the next official figures with the source version used here. Separate inconsistencies in the bulletin about a charge subgroup are recorded in the research archive; we do not rely on those disputed charge figures in this arrest analysis.

Sources: Home OfficeHome OfficeHome Office

What is established

  • The GB News caption accurately describes the official headline totals and distinguishes arrest from being charged or convicted.
  • The latest total contains 3,630 arrests linked to supporting Palestine Action and 237 other terrorism-related arrests.
  • All three central calculations can be repeated from the saved annual tables.

What remains unknown

  • The reel's full spoken and visual presentation was not assessed.
  • The number of attacks or different people arrested cannot be read from these totals alone.
  • The figures do not establish what would have happened without the ban, its merits, or an intention to deceive.

The story, in order

Earlier comparison year begins
The previous arrest period runs to 30 June 2025.

Latest comparison year begins
The latest arrest period runs to 30 June 2026.

Palestine Action proscribed
The Home Office identifies the supporting-Palestine-Action subgroup following this legal change.

Home Office releases published and checked
The figures and calculations use the releases available on this date. Later revisions may change the source files.

YOUR TURN TO CHECK

Reproduce this investigation

Repeat the headline comparison from the original published cells. You do not need coding or individual case data.

You will need
A web browser, a calculator, and LibreOffice Calc or Excel to open the Home Office ODS annual tables. Download the text calculations for the exact inputs, cells and source-file hashes.

Calculations and source cells · TXTStep-by-step guide · TXTSource notes · TXTTimeline · CSV
What you can and cannot repeat

These steps reproduce arithmetic from published aggregate tables, not an analysis of individual arrests. They cannot establish unique people, attacks, guilt, underlying terrorism, policy merits or motive. The caption was checked, but the full reel audio and video were not. No filters or record-level exclusions were applied: the only separate comparison is the Home Office subgroup already published in table A.01c.

  1. Open the release and the right workbook

    Open the Home Office release published 8 October 2026, then download the annual tables to June 2026. Open worksheet A_A_01. The columns are Y for year ending June 2025 and Z for year ending June 2026. The geography is Great Britain: England, Wales and Scotland. The unit is recorded terrorism-related arrests, not unique people.

    Home Office release: police powers to June 2026Annual terrorism tables, June 2026

    Keep in mind Use the source version retrieved on 8 October 2026. The calculations download records its SHA-256 hash. A later revision may give different values.

  2. Check the rise in all arrests

    In table A.01a, inspect A_A_01!Y15 (234) and A_A_01!Z15 (3,867). Subtract the earlier value from the later one, divide by the earlier value, then multiply by 100. Round only the final percentage to the nearest whole number.

    (3,867 - 234) / 234 × 100 = 1,552.5641%
Rounded result: 1,553% increase
    Annual terrorism tables, June 2026

  3. Find the share linked to supporting Palestine Action

    In table A.01b, inspect A_A_01!Z25 (3,630). Divide by the latest total in A_A_01!Z15 (3,867) and multiply by 100. The denominator is all recorded terrorism-related arrests in the same year and geography.

    3,630 / 3,867 × 100 = 93.8712%
Rounded result: 94% of the latest total
    Annual terrorism tables, June 2026

  4. Check the separate Home Office comparison

    In table A.01c, inspect A_A_01!Y35 (234) and A_A_01!Z35 (237). Apply the same percentage-change formula, using 234 as the denominator. Reconcile the two current subgroups to the published total.

    (237 - 234) / 234 × 100 = 1.2821%
Rounded result: 1% increase
3,630 + 237 = 3,867
    Annual terrorism tables, June 2026

    Keep in mind This is the published subgroup comparison. Subtracting a subgroup does not estimate what would have happened without the ban.

  5. Read the counting rules before interpreting the result

    Open the Home Office user guide and use the browser search for arrests, postal charge requisitions and summonses. Read the arrests definitions and counting rules. The series can include cases under other legislation judged terrorism-related, and a further arrest on a different occasion for a different offence can be counted separately.

    Definitions and counting rules

    Keep in mind Do not turn the totals into attacks, convictions or unique people. The smaller comparison remains terrorism-related arrests.

  6. Repeat the separate hate-crime arithmetic

    Open the hate-crime data tables, worksheet 2. All offences use B23 (137,560) and C23 (146,825); race uses B17 (98,890) and C17 (107,926); religion uses B18 (10,067) and C18 (11,419). For each row, calculate (current minus previous) / previous × 100 and round the final result.

    All: 6.7352%, rounded 7%
Race: 9.1374%, rounded 9%
Religion: 13.4300%, rounded 13%
    Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2026Hate-crime data tables, 2025 to 2026

    Keep in mind This is England and Wales, years ending March 2025 and March 2026. It has a different geography and period from the arrest series. Do not combine the counts or infer causation.

  7. Compare what the caption says and record the limits

    Open the original GB News caption. Compare its almost 3,900 arrests, more than 1,500% rise and fewer than 250 a year earlier with the exact values above. Keep its stated distinction between arrest and being charged or convicted. The arithmetic supports those headline descriptions.

    GB News Instagram reel and caption

    Keep in mind This checks the caption and official data. It does not assess the complete reel, establish deceptive intent or decide the merits of the policy.

Sources you can check

We checked the GB News caption against the Home Office releases and read the preserved original ODS tables. The complete reel audio and video were not assessed. No individual-level data or estimate of underlying terrorism is used. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Inspect the evidence

Source notes include the links and verification limits. The timeline opens in Excel or any spreadsheet app.

Source notes · TXTTimeline · CSVCalculations and source cells · TXT

The calculations are a transparent text record of published cells and arithmetic, not a new workbook or individual-level dataset. Open Government Licence v3.0

Photo credit and licence

Police Lantern, 3 August 2010. Tony Hisgett / Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0. Resized for display and cropped to fit. Homepage photographs also have a dark gradient and text overlay.

Carousel photograph credits and licences

  • Police Lantern
    Tony Hisgett. London, 3 August 2010. Archive policing context; no arrest, offence or specific operation is shown.
    CC BY 2.0. Cropped, resized and darkened for the carousel. Original photograph.
  • Home Office, 2 Marsham Street
    Steph Gray. Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London, 3 September 2010. Archive institution context, not a photograph of the 2026 release.
    CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped, resized and darkened for the carousel. Original and photographic adaptation under CC BY-SA 2.0. Original photograph.
  • Palestine Action Protest, London, Saturday 6th September - 29
    Indigo Nolan (indigonolan). London, 6 September 2025. Two police officers photographed from behind at the documented Palestine Action protest. No arrest or detainee is visible; this scene does not represent every arrest counted.
    CC BY 4.0. Cropped, resized and darkened for the carousel. Original photograph.
  • Simple Calculator (5100067174)
    Dave Dugdale. 20 October 2010. Object illustration, not evidence of how the Home Office calculated these figures. Photographer attribution: https://www.learningvideo.com/.
    CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped, resized and darkened for the carousel. Original and photographic adaptation under CC BY-SA 2.0. Original photograph. Photographer website.
  • Lady Justice, the Old Bailey
    Philip Halling. Old Bailey, London, 9 November 2021. Archive court context; this does not identify the venue or outcome of any counted case.
    CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped, resized and darkened for the carousel. Original and photographic adaptation under CC BY-SA 2.0. Original photograph.
  • Person reading newspaper
    Karolina Grabowska / Kaboompics. 28 July 2014. Illustrative newspaper reading; location unknown. No claim is made about the reader's political views or the newspaper's connection to the story.
    CC0 1.0. Cropped, resized and darkened for the carousel.

These credits cover the accompanying six-card carousel in slide order. Apart from the police lantern used above, these photographs are not distributed on this website. No generative alterations were made. The logo remains separate brand artwork.

Research and production assisted by AI. Read our approach

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