Child strip searches: Yorkshire and Humber has lowest rate in country although report finds safeguarding issues

There were 3,368 strip searches of children carried out by 44 police forces – including British Transport Police – between January 2018 and June 2023, according to data provided by forces to the commissioner.

In the final 12 months of the time period, Yorkshire and the Humber was the region with the lowest rate of child strip searches, at 0.3 per 10,000 10 to 17-year-olds.

The rate in Wales was six times higher, at 1.72 per 10,000, although one Welsh force said it had mistakenly provided incorrect data which had contributed to a higher overall figure.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, said her report is a first of its kind, giving a complete analysis of strip searches for this five-and-a-half-year period, using her statutory powers to request the data.

The high-profile case of Child Q, a 15-year-old schoolgirl strip searched in 2020 having been wrongly accused of possessing cannabis, prompted outrage when it emerged in 2022, and has been described by the commissioner as “shocking” and something which should not happen again.

The girl, who is black, was strip searched while on her period with no appropriate adult present at a school in Hackney, east London. Scotland Yard later apologised.

Three Metropolitan Police officers are facing allegations of gross misconduct over the search, with a hearing date yet to be confirmed.

Dame Rachel’s latest report shows the number of strip searches – those exposing intimate parts – under stop and search of children in England and Wales in 2022 was 42 per cent lower than in 2020.

With the report coming not long after violent street disorder in parts of the UK, Dame Rachel spoke of the need for a “culture of trust to be built between children and the police”, given the “vital importance of responsive, trusted policing in our communities” seen this summer.

Black children across the two nations were four times more likely to be searched compared with national population figures, although this was an improvement on the 2018-22 period when they were six times more likely to be searched.

The commissioner said while the disparity has reduced, the disproportionate number of searches experienced by black children “remains a critical concern”.

Between July 2022 and June 2023, 88 per cent of searches were conducted on suspicion of drugs, and 6 per cent on suspicion of carrying weapons.

Some 457 searches were carried out on children between July 2022 and June 2023 across the two nations, half of which led to no further action.

The commissioner said this statistic calls into question “the necessity of such an intrusive search in the first place”.

Dame Rachel said: “A much higher threshold should be met before a child is subjected to a humiliating and traumatising intimate search.”

She said there remains “urgent work to be done: too many strip searches carried out are unnecessary, unsafe and underreported”.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said it would consider the report’s findings.