Joint statement from Just for Kids Law (including the Children’s Rights Alliance for England), the Youth Justice Legal Centre and the Children’s Legal Centre Wales, working together as the Child Law Network
Today’s publication marks the fourth in a series of reports by the Children’s Commissioner for England investigating the Exposure of Intimate Parts searches under police stop and search powers. What began as an inquiry into whether the deeply concerning case of Child Q - a 15-year-old Black girl strip searched at school - was a one-off, has gone on to expose system-wide failings across England and Wales and a need for urgent action.
The practice of strip searching is inherently traumatic, degrading, and a violation of children’s rights. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called for the UK to “take legislative measures to explicitly prohibit, without exception, the use of… strip searches of children” back in 2023. Yet current law and guidance in relation to strip search remains not-fit-for-purpose and, in spite of government promises, reforms have been slow to materialise. More than five years on from the strip search of Child Q, and despite the government’s clear manifesto pledge, no legislative reforms have been brought forward.
While the report identifies a downward trend in the use of strip searches in recent years, the numbers remain high with 377 strip searches of children recorded in 2024. Shockingly, the new analysis also finds that nearly one third of children who are strip searched are being subjected to multiple strip searches.
We are also deeply concerned that the evidence continues to show disproportionate use on Black children. The new data shows that between 2023 and 2024, Black children were almost 8 times more likely to be strip searched than White children and around 5 times more likely than Asian children, indicating no improvement since the Commissioner’s previous report.
The analysis also shows that the reason identified for the use of force ‘to effect’ stop and search on Black children is often simply their “size or build”. These findings reinforce the need to explicitly name and address racial discrimination – particularly adultification bias – as a key driver underpinning both the use of strip search and wider use of force against children. We therefore welcome the Children’s Commissioner’s recognition of adultification. It is vital that this is clearly articulated and consistently understood as a central factor in influencing the use of strip search and use of force by police officers on Black children.
While data recording improved between 2018 and 2024 with missing data fields falling from 83% to 54%, this is still a substantial amount of unrecorded data. We therefore support the report’s recommendation for improved data quality, availability and transparency. High-quality, disaggregated data is essential to understanding the nature and scale of these issues, including the role of race, age and other factors in the use of police powers and enable full scrutiny and accountability.
However, while we recognise the importance of improving transparency, oversight and procedural safeguards in the immediate term, all reform must be explicitly underpinned by, and consistently framed around, a clear presumption against strip search on children.
The report must act as a wake-up call to accelerate ending the use of strip searching on children, while ensuring that the underlying drivers, particularly the discrimination and adultification faced by Black children, are meaningfully addressed. The Commissioner’s recommendation to pilot emerging technologies must also be taken forward with urgency so the intrusive and traumatic practice of strip searching children can come to an end.
Director and Co-lead at Just for Kids Law, including the Children's Rights Alliance for England, Louise King, commented:
“While the report identifies a positive downward trend in the use of strip search, this doesn’t translate for Black children, which echoes what we unfortunately know from our frontline work at Just for Kids Law. We frequently come across cases where the police have failed to treat Black children as children first and foremost, causing significant harm.
Racist narratives of ‘aggression’ and ‘propensity to violence’ follow Black children throughout the systems they engage with, constructing them as risks to the public and community, not being afforded the notion of innocence due to perceptions of being older and therefore more responsible for their action. All too often the State’s response to Black children is to sanction and criminalise instead of keeping them safe.
It is simply not acceptable that Black children are almost 8 times more likely to be strip searched than White children. This disproportionality must be tackled head on, and a child-centred, rights-based approach must underpin all policing, and for all children.”
We urge the government to take action now to drive forward urgent reforms.