One child strip searched every 14 hours - with appropriate adult not recorded in almost half of recent cases

One child is strip searched every 14 hours, according to data in a report by the Children's Commissioner, with police failing to record an appropriate adult in almost half of recent searches.

The report shows there were 3,368 strip searches of children between January 2018 and June 2023 in England and Wales - with 457 over the last 12 months of that period.

Between July 2022 and June 2023, an appropriate adult - usually a parent or guardian - could not be confirmed present in 39% of searches, while none was present in 6% of cases.

Black children are four times more likely to be searched, a slight change from the period covering 2018-22 when they were six times more likely.

But Dame Rachel de Souza's report shows the number of strip searches - those exposing intimate parts - under stop and search of children in 2022 was 42% lower than in 2020.

"I am particularly reassured by the progress in London by the Metropolitan Police, but today's research serves as a stark reminder that this is not an isolated issue in the capital," Dame Rachel said.

"A much higher threshold should be met before a child is subjected to a humiliating and traumatising intimate search."

She added there remains "urgent work to be done", with "too many" strip searches being "unnecessary, unsafe and underreported".

Percentage of strip searches conducted per year

It is not currently the law that there has to be an appropriate adult, such as a parent or guardian, present during the search.

However Dame Rachel says there is "strong guidance" from the government that there should be.

She told Sky News: "One of the things I'm urging the police areas to think about is safeguarding. These are children and safeguarding needs to come first.

"This is a very intimate sort of search that will have big emotional impacts later. So we need the police to make sure they (follow the guidance), there is an appropriate adult there, and the search is done in an appropriate place."

Dame Rachel said children as young as eight and 10 were strip-searched during the period covered by the report, while 88% of all searches were carried out on children who were suspected of carrying drugs.

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.

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

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

Responding to the report, Chief Constable Craig Guildford, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for ethics and integrity, said: "If an officer considers it necessary to search a child, this must be carried out in line with legislation, policy, and procedure and that safeguards are in place.

"Work with partners continues in order to inform best practice and to implement positive change wherever it is required."

Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza will be talking about the report in more detail on Sky News Breakfast at around 6.30am today