Stop-And-Search Police Powers To Be Reviewed

The Home Secretary has launched a public consultation into controversial police stop-and-search powers.

Theresa May, in a Commons statement, warned the way the powers were being used was harming community relations as well as wasting police time.

MPs heard people from black or ethnic minority backgrounds were seven times more likely to be stopped by officers than white people.

Mrs May said more than one million stops were recorded every year but on average only around 9% led to an arrest.

This conversion rate and how long each took to process - around 16 minutes - caused a "dreadful waste of police time", she added.

Last year this took up 312,000 hours - equal to 145 full-time officers doing nothing else, Mrs May told the House.

Theresa May speaking to MPs in the Commons

She stressed that the procedure would not be scrapped but announced a six-week public consultation into its fairness.

She said: "Everybody involved in policing has a duty to ensure nobody is ever stopped just on the basis of their skin colour or ethnicity.

"The law is clear that in normal circumstances stop and search should only ever be used where there is a reasonable suspicion of criminality and that is how it should be."

She added: "Firstly, it must be applied fairly and in a way that builds community confidence in the police, rather than undermining it.

"And second, given the scale of recording requirements placed on the police, when stop-and-search is misapplied, it is a waste of police time."

The consultation comes a few weeks after the Government's equality watchdog said police forces were being fairer and more efficient in how the employed the powers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that five forces, including the Metropolitan Police, had reduced their use without compromising crime reduction.

Mrs May has also asked Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to look at the procedure and their report is due within a few weeks.

Under current laws, police need to have reasonable grounds to suspect that the subject is guilty of some form of criminal behaviour before they can conduct a search.

The Home Secretary said: "At its best stop-and-search is a vital power in the fight against crime. At its worst, it is a waste of police time and undermines public confidence in the police."

She promised a formal Government response would be issued by the end of the year.

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