STOP-AND-SEARCHES by Scottish police have continued at a higher rate than their counterparts in England, despite the introduction of a new code of practice to address concerns over the number of people being searched without a legal basis.
The new figures reveal that in the first six months after the new code of practice for stop and search came in, there were17,446 searches.
Though the total – which covers June to November 2017 – is down from 24,210 in the corresponding period in 2016, there were 5.4 searches for every 10,000 people carried out each month in Scotland compared to a rate of 4.3 per 10,000 in England and Wales.
Scottish Labour justice spokesman Daniel Johnson said: "Against the background of a new code of conduct on searches by the police, I believe there are questions that need to be answered by the police on their use of this tactic. Scotland has a worrying history of using stop and searches at a much higher rate than the rest of the UK, and even with the new code of practice the rate has remained higher."
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams said: "These claims are overly simplistic. The reality is that the volume of stop and searches in Scotland has fallen dramatically and a recent independent review highlighted our continued strong progress."
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