Children’s commissioner Rachel de Souza has condemned the strip searching of children as a new report revealed more than 3,300 have taken place in the last five years.
She said too many young people were being subjected to the “humiliating and traumatising” experience when they are arrested.
Her report is the third in a series produced after a 15-year-old black girl – known as Child Q – was strip searched at her school in Hackney, east London, in 2020.
Under current guidelines, police in England and Wales can carry out strip-searches if strict guidelines are followed, such as ensuring that an appropriate adult is present.
According to data gathered by de Souza, 3,368 strip-searches of children were conducted by 44 police forces in England and Wales between January 2018 and June 2023.
However, one in 20 of them were not compliant with statutory codes of practice, while nearly half - 47% - resulted in ‘no further action’.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast this morning, de Souza said “the police must be trustworthy and must keep the rules”.
She added: “My argument is, they should only be done if it’s a life-threatening situation. Let me just remind viewers, this is pre-arrest, this is a child that’s just a suspicion, they’re taken – there’s meant to be an appropriate adult there: in 45% of cases there are not.
“And their clothes are removed, and their most intimate parts are looked at and moved if necessary.
“It’s really very intrusive and, you know, it’s hard to see, given that only about half of the strip searches have further action taken – and a far smaller percent actually end up with charges – that they’re being done because it’s really, really crucial for life and death that they’re being done.”
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.”