PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Body Searches: Children (25 April 2023)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2023 to Question 175703 on Body Searches: Children, for what reasons the collection of data on the stop and search of children was voluntary.

Asked by:
Navendu Mishra (Labour)

The data collection of children searched under stop and search powers is mandatory and is published as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Stop and search and arrests’ statistical bulletin.

Additionally, for the first time in the year ending March 2022, the Home Office collected and published data on strip searches that occurred in police custody, available here: Police powers and procedures: Other PACE powers, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

As is usual practice for new data collections added to the Annual Data Requirement (ADR), the data was collected on a voluntary basis in 2021/22 to allow forces time to embed recording processes and make changes to their systems as required. As such, not all forces provided data or provided partial data.

It is mandatory for police forces to provide this data for the year ending March 2023.

Answered by:
Chris Philp (Conservative)
2 May 2023