BLACK people in West Yorkshire are over twice as likely to be arrested as white people, new figures show.

Home Office figures show 1,511 arrests of black people were made in West Yorkshire in 2020-21.

This equated to an estimated 32.5 arrests per 1,000 black people in the area, based on population figures from the 2011 census.

There were 13.5 arrests per 1,000 white people, meaning a black person was 2.4 times more likely to be arrested.

Arrest rates were down from 2019-20 – before the coronavirus pandemic led to a fall in overall crime – when 34.6 arrests per 1,000 black people and 13.5 per 1,000 white people were made.

Across England and Wales, black people were 3.3 times more likely to be arrested than white people in 2020-21.

Emmanuelle Andrews, policy and campaigns manager at civil lobbying charity Liberty, said the figures "highlight the injustices that black communities face across the criminal justice system".

Ms Andrews said: "The police should not be handed more powers, and their existing ones must be rolled back."

But the Home Office says "more is being done in policing than ever before to ensure everyone is treated fairly and without prejudice".

Separate Home Office figures show in West Yorkshire in 2020-21 there were 19.0 stop and searches per 1,000 black people, compared to 5.7 per 1,000 white people.

Across England and Wales during that period, there were 52.6 stop and searches for every 1,000 black people.

This is compared to 7.5 per 1,000 white people, meaning a black person is more than seven times more likely to be stopped.

Habib Kadiri, research and policy manager at StopWatch, an anti stop and search charity, said the racial disparity in arrests is "symptomatic of an attitude that excuses the disproportionate targeting of black people under the guise that they are more likely to be involved in violence and drug crime".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Every knife taken off our streets is a potential life saved, with 16,000 dangerous weapons removed from the streets and almost 81,000 arrests made last year because of stop and search.

"No one should be stopped because of their race, but tragically data shows that young black men are disproportionately more likely to be the victims of knife crime."

The Telegraph & Argus approached West Yorkshire Police for a comment but did not receive one.