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Police Scotland urged to end non-statutory stop and search MSPs set to ban Police Scotland from using non-statutory stop and search
(about 2 hours later)
Police Scotland should end the tactic of consensual stop and search, an independent report has concluded. Scottish ministers are expected to announce a ban on police using stop and search without legal cause after an independent inquiry found it was of “questionable lawfulness and legitimacy.”
The Scottish government set up an advisory group led by the solicitor advocate, John Scott QC, to look at the future of the policy in Scotland. Related: UN human rights body criticises police stop-and-search powers in Scotland
In March, the force confirmed there would be a presumption against consensual, or non-statutory, stop and search for all age groups. These searches differ from statutory searches, where a person is stopped under legislative powers and reasonable suspicion is required. An investigation headed by John Scott QC, a human rights lawyer, has told ministers that Police Scotland had made “excessive” use of its informal powers to search people, including tens of thousands of children, without any evidence they had committed a crime.
The report concluded: “Non-statutory stop and search lacks any legal framework and is of questionable lawfulness and legitimacy, with poor accountability.” With ministers expected to agree to his call on Thursday for a new statutory code on police search powers and to discuss possible powers to search children for alcohol, Scott’s review said: “Non-statutory stop and search lacks any legal framework and is of questionable lawfulness and legitimacy, with poor accountability.”
The group has recommended that a code of practice backed by law be developed to cover stop and search. This should be consulted on and subject to frequent review. A majority also agreed that consensual searches should come to an end at the point at which the code comes into effect. And in a further reverse on policing policy, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said her government now accepted “unreservedly” a call by the police inspectorate to postpone plans to close three Police Scotland call centres after the deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill, whose crashed car was ignored by police for three days.
“All searches by police officers in Scotland of persons not in custody should thereafter be undertaken on the basis of statutory powers exercised in accordance with the code of practice,” the report said. Related: M9 crash police call centre had 10% staff absence rate
It added: “If non-statutory stop and search is ended, officers of Police Scotland will still be able to carry out their duties effectively. Abolition will not result in any significant gaps.” Michael Matheson, the Scottish justice secretary, had insisted soon after their deaths on the M9 in July that there was no evidence the police’s failure to investigate the first public call was due to call centres being overburdened or a “systemic failure”. It was down to human error, he said.
The report calls for a consultation on whether to change the law to give officers the power to search children under 18 for alcohol when they have reasonable grounds for suspicion. It also wants Police Scotland to provide regular and public reports and data about stop and search to the Scottish Police Authority. Sturgeon’s promise at Holyrood came as opposition leaders said her government had to admit that it shared the blame for these crises.
Earlier this week the irst minister, Nicola Sturgeon, confirmed to parliament that a statutory code of practice on stop and search would be introduced. The heavy use of non-statutory stop and search – including against children, was a key crime-fighting pledge in the Scottish National party’s 2011 election manifesto and was defended by ministers.
The force came under fire after research found stop-and-search rates in Scotland were the highest in the UK, with a significant number of children and young people stopped. Scottish ministers had repeatedly brushed off complaints about “industrial levels” of stop and search, and warnings about cost-cutting at police call centres, said Willie Rennie, the Scottish Lib Dem leader, and Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader.
The report said: “The evidence we have seen, and even anecdotal submissions, support what we had understood to be the position – on the whole stop and search, and particularly non-statutory stop and search, is used disproportionately on children and young people, in particular young men, in Scotland. The wider crisis of confidence in Police Scotland, which included a row over routine patrols by armed officers and the death in custody of Sheku Bayoh in Kirkcaldy, came to a head last week after its first chief constable, Sir Stephen House, bowed to intense pressure and announced he would resign early.
“To a significant extent, the tactic has been used on children and young people in areas afflicted with poverty and social deprivation. The unseen consequences of dented or broken public confidence, particularly in deprived areas of the country, should not be ignored.” Related: Sir Stephen House was not the figurehead Police Scotland needed | Ruth Wishart
It added: “It seems clear that the use of targets, or KPIs, featuring stop and search led to a proliferation in the use of the tactic, both before and following the establishment of Police Scotland. Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, said until now ministers had “closed ranks with the top brass” over controversies on stop and search, the closure of police station public counters, alleged spying on a journalist, armed police on routine patrol, and the M9 deaths.
“Even some police sources have conceded that the extent of use of the tactic took it beyond any available intelligence and best use of officer hours.” Since 2010 and with the subsequent merger of Scotland’s eight regional forces into one force two years ago, civilian staffing at Police Scotland had been cut by 2,350 posts, a fall of 30%, with House forced to protect uniformed officer numbers to meet a government target to fix police numbers.
“We know that civilian staff numbers have paid the price for that policy,” Dugdale told Holyrood. “The police force in Scotland is weaker under this government.”
With ministers now keen to end these disputes and accept reform, Matheson is to release details later on Thursday of a new review of the oversight and accountability systems for Police Scotland, when he also accepts the recommendations from both the Scott review and on police command centres.
Sturgeon told Holyrood that ministers had a “sacred duty” to learn lessons from mistakes: everyone, she said, had been “shocked and saddened” by the deaths of Bell and Yuill.
But she said opposition parties had themselves backed plans to create Police Scotland, which had helped oversee the lowest crime levels for 40 years.
An interim report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) after police failed to investigate a public call about the M9 crash found there were “significant staff shortages” at the Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness call centres, which led to real risks of further serious errors.
The command rooms at Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen, where calls are due to be centralised, did still not have sufficient trained staff. Their closure should be delayed, said HMICS, until all other control rooms were fully staffed and expanded.
“The current practice of diverting unanswered ‘overflow’ calls to the sites in Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen is creating additional risk by passing incidents back to the north area control rooms in the absence of a single national command and control system,” it said.
It said “Police Scotland should consolidate and stabilise their staffing, systems, procedures and processes in both the east and west service centres and area control rooms.”
Related: Police Scotland is a lamentable shambles | Kevin McKenna
HMICS added that it wanted further assurances from Police Scotland about how it assessed risk and vulnerability when handling emergency calls; its workforce planning and staffing; the consistency of its training; clarity of “governance and oversight” and accountability in control rooms.
The Scott report on stop and search said there needed to be early and separate consultation on whether the police should have a new legal power to search under-18s for alcohol as police commanders wanted the authority to continue doing so.
It said Scott and his colleagues on the review could not agree on whether this gap could be dealt with by using existing powers, or whether a legal power to search children without evidence of a crime was desirable. “The sheer scale of the activity around alcohol underlines Police Scotland’s view that this continues to be an area of concern and the inability to use search powers to remove alcohol from young people is a potential problem,” the report concluded.
But it insisted that ending non-statutory stops would not weaken Police Scotland’s ability to carry out its duties. “Abolition will not result in any significant gaps,” the report said.
“Specifically, officers will still be able to respond to any welfare or protection issues they encounter. Action will still be possible even when required on an emergency basis, whether carried out by police officers, social workers, medical staff or others.”