Statement following Children's Commissioner's analysis of police strip searches of children across England and Wales

We welcome today’s report from the Children’s Commissioner for England.

As Britain’s equality regulator, we are particularly concerned by the finding that Black children are up to six times more likely to be strip searched compared to the national population.

We are also concerned about the systemic problems raised in the report relating to safeguarding, particularly the lack of scrutiny of the searches conducted by the police.

We will consider the findings of the report carefully and we will not hesitate to use the full range of our regulatory powers if necessary.