One in 20 child strip-searches fail to meet legal safeguards, Children’s Commissioner warns

The report, commissioned following the case of Child Q in which a teenage girl was strip-searched at school while on her period, shows that from January 2018 to June 2023, 3,368 strip searches of children were conducted by 44 police forces in England and Wales, including the British Transport Police.

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

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

More than 100 searches conducted between 2018 and June 2023 were not compliant with statutory codes of practice and almost 400 searches constituted a safeguarding concern.

Between July 2022 and June 2023, an appropriate adult could not be confirmed to be present in 45% of searches, including 1% of searches in which the child was identified as a child after the search had taken place.

The research, based on the results of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to all police forces in England and Wales, also reveals that in 95% of cases boys were strip searched compared with 5% which involved girls.

Just over half of searches were conducted at a police station, 14% of searches were conducted in the child’s home and 8% of searches were conducted at “another location”. The location was not recorded for the remaining 25% of searches, states the report.

It also raises concerns over a failure to record vulnerabilities affecting children.

“Police forces were least likely to routinely record looked-after child status and most likely to routinely record whether the child was potentially a victim of child criminal or sexual exploitation,” according to the report.

Between July 2022 and June 2023, 88% of searches were conducted on suspicion of a child carrying drugs, and 6% on suspicion of carrying weapons, “points” and blades.

The remaining 6% of searches were conducted on suspicion of “other reasons” including carrying stolen property.

Of these searches, just under half resulted in “no further action”, around a quarter of searches resulted in an arrest, and 6% of search outcomes were not recorded. 

De Souza said that searches should only be carried out “where there is a clear and immediate danger to the child or others”.

“The majority of searches are still conducted on suspicion of drugs and nearly half result in no further action, indicating that many traumatic searches, similar to the experiences of Child Q, could be preventable. If such an intrusive and potentially traumatic power is deemed necessary, it must be accompanied by robust safeguards after considering of potential long-term impacts on children’s mental health,” she added.

Responding to the report, assistant chief constable Andrew Mariner, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for stop and search, said that the NPCC is working with the Home Office, the College of Policing, and others, to relevant codes of practice.

“We are also working with the College of Policing on refining existing training for officers that explicitly teach the trauma that these types of searches can have on individuals and communities. Work is also underway to review training for other ranks, including managers and senior leaders.

“We will also conduct a full review of our Authorised Professional Practice in respect of stop and search. This detailed and wide-ranging review will seek to examine all aspects of stop and search, including strip searches, and make any necessary changes to policing policy and national practices,” he said.

De Souza’s report comes a year after she published an initial review of child strip-searches carried out by the London Metropolitan Police.