The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice very much welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation on Police Scotland’s stop and search code of practice. The code of practice provides a framework for when and how officers may stop and search individuals. It came into being in 2017, following the passing of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, and this consultation is part of a review into the code which is required every four years.
Summary of CYCJ position
The Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ) works towards ensuring that Scotland’s approach to children and young people in conflict with the law is rights-respecting, contributing to better outcomes for our children, young people and communities. CYCJ is funded by the Scottish Government and our response to this consultation is drawn from our practice, participation, research and policy expertise and evidence.
CYCJ believes that the code broadly sets out the circumstances and procedures for a search to be undertaken, and welcome the inclusion of several factors which could impact a child or young person’s interactions with the police, such as past trauma or speech, language and communication needs.
That said, we believe that significant amendments need to be made to the code. In particular, there needs to be a greater focus on the rights of children and young people, with a specific awareness of the need to actively tackle discrimination and bias, alongside a separate section for young people, covering the age range of 18-25.
There needs to be more steps outlined to include the views and experiences of children and young people in the ongoing monitoring and review process. This is especially important to reduce the number of unnecessary searches of children and to ensure that a very high bar is set for a search to be undertaken.
As we have also set out, there is a considerable number of points from the previous guidance which have been removed without justification and we would like to see them reinstated.
If you have any questions, or would like to discuss CYCJ’s response in more detail, please contact Allan Young allan.young@strath.ac.uk.