One child strip searched every 14 hours says new report

One in 20 child strip-searches by police were not compliant with legal codes of practice in England and Wales over five years, a report by the Children’s Commissioner has found.

More than 3,000 strip searches were carried out on children between 2018 and mid-2023, according to data gathered by Dame Rachel de Souza.

On average, one child was strip-searched every 14 hours under police stop and search powers.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “No child should ever be strip-searched without an appropriate adult, unless there is a risk of serious harm to themselves or others, nor should they ever be conducted, on the basis of their race and ethnicity.”

Dame Rachel said too many of these searches were “unnecessary, unsafe and under-reported”.

She added that a much higher threshold should be met before a child is “subjected to a humiliating and traumatising intimate search”.

“We need a culture of trust to be built between children and the police, so it’s vital that improvements continue at pace.”

Police in England and Wales can carry out strip-searches if guidelines are followed under stop-and-search powers or in custody.

Officers have to ensure they act in a sensitive, proportionate way and an appropriate adult must be present.

The key findings:

• 3,368 strip-searches of children were conducted by 44 police forces* in England and Wales between January 2018 and June 2023
• 1 in 20 strip-searches were not compliant with statutory codes of practice
• 47% of searches resulted in ‘no further action’

*Includes the British Transport Police

This latest report, commissioned following the case of Child Q, does show some improvements, with a lower number of strip-searches overall and better safeguarding referrals.

There was also a fall in the number of strip-searches on black children between 2022 and 2023, but they were still four times more likely to be strip-searched than the overall child population.

I met a mother who says her 14-year-old son was strip-searched while in custody in the south of England without an appropriate adult present.

He was arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis but claims it was a small amount for personal use.

“He was strip-searched and then left naked in the cell,” the boy’s mother said.

He was diagnosed with autism in primary school and now, in his twenties, is living with psychosis, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

His mother says his mental health has been severely damaged by multiple stop and searches during his childhood and has accused police of targeting him because of his black ethnic heritage.

“The police brutality that he’s experienced, it’s not something that professionals want to talk about and address with him.”

“One of the issues that we have is that where he’s been brought up in predominantly white environments, he minimises a lot of the racism that happens to him.”

Elaine Isadora Thomas is the Founder and CEO of The Mentoring Lab, a youth organisation in Hackney, east London which supports young people, parents and community groups from marginalised backgrounds.

“This report is damning. It damages what we expect from police and the police service,” she said.

“If we’re strip-searching young people, and it’s disproportionately against young people who are from African and Caribbean backgrounds, then we’re not looking at the root causes.

“If we take a no strip-search approach, then we have to look at other options.”

The Home Office said the government has committed to introducing new safeguards for strip-searching children and young people in its manifesto and would carefully consider the Children’s Commissioner’s recommendations to ensure police can keep people safe in a fair and proportionate way, with full regard for a child’s dignity.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which brings together leaders from forces across the country, says it’s working with the Home Office, the College of Policing, and others to make changes to the codes of practice governing strip searches.

Assistant Chief Constable Andrew Mariner, the NPCC’s lead for stop and search, said he agreed with the report’s findings and that the group would be “refining existing training for officers that explicitly teach the trauma that these types of searches can have on individuals and communities”.