There is no selection on racial grounds for people stopped and searched at rail stations in Scotland, the UK rail minister has insisted.
Tom Harris, MP for Glasgow South, defended officers on a visit to Glasgow Central station, where police searched cars and train passengers.
British Transport Police was criticised by Scottish Justice Secretary, Kenny MacAskill, this week, who said it was in danger of undermining good community relations with minority communities when it emerged 12% of those stopped were from an ethnic minority.
Mr Harris said: "Racial profiling is not used, nor will it be used by British Transport Police. Yes, Asians make up 2% of the population of Scotland, but it is higher in Glasgow and in certain parts of the city it is higher again.
"My constituency has the second-highest concentration of Asian people in Scotland and I have had not a single complaint."
British Transport Police issued a breakdown of ethnic identity of those stopped since July. The majority were white with 88% stopped. Asians accounted for 5.3%, the largest of the ethnic groupings.
Afro-Caribbean made up 2.6% and Chinese 1.1%, with Arabic the lowest at 0.4%. Another 3.7 were of unknown ethnic origin.
Officers stopped cars entering the car park and searched boots and checked under wheel arches and took details from drivers yesterday during a visit by the minister which BTP said was planned weeks before Mr MacAskill's comments. Passengers were stopped on the station concourse and officers looked inside bags.
Mr Harris was joined by Ian Johnston, chief constable of British Transport Police.
He said: "The population you have coming through stations is not typical of the population as people are coming from all over. We've done 15,000 searches and we've not received a single complaint."
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