Police strip-searched children without arrests

Metropolitan Police officers are strip-searching an average of five children a week without arresting them, figures show.

The force has faced intense scrutiny over its handling of underage suspects after a 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched in 2020 – without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating.

Now, figures obtained by LBC radio under the Freedom of Information Act show 799 children aged 10 to 17 were strip-searched while not in custody between 2019 and 2021. More than half of them were black, while 76 per cent were of ethnically diverse background.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said the Met “is progressing at pace [its] work to ensure children subject to intrusive searches are dealt with appropriately and respectfully”.