Scotland's chief constable is considering ending the practice of non-statutory stop-and-search by police officers, the First Minister has announced.
Nicola Sturgeon told Holyrood that Sir Stephen House has indicated he wants to "move to a situation" where such searches are no longer carried out.
Ms Sturgeon made the announcement at First Minister's Questions as she was quizzed on the issue by Conservative leader Ruth Davidson and Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie.
It came after it emerged this week that consensual searches on children under the age of 12 are still taking place, despite Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson telling a Holyrood committee in June that the practice is "indefensible" and would be scrapped.
Ms Davidson said: "This week we found out that the police in Scotland had stopped and searched hundreds of children under the age of 12.
"For our youngest children, 159 were stopped in Scotland aged nine and under. In London, with millions more people and higher crime, that number was just 19.
"Primary school children as young as five being approached by uniformed officers asking to search them, and them not knowing if they are allowed to say no."
She added: "How can a senior ranking officer come to Holyrood and tell Parliament that officers are regularly doing something that even the police consider indefensible and then walk out the front door and carry on regardless."
The First Minister said the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) had asked for an explanation from Police Scotland as to why children were being searched, and the matter would be discussed in public at its next board meeting.
Ms Sturgeon said: "Clearly this is an issue that many people will have concerns around. When the police search children it is generally to ensure that they are safe and we understand that a proportion of these searches are because drugs or weapons may have been concealed by others on very young children."
She added: "I have spoken to the chief constable about stop-and-search and I can advise Parliament that following a six-month pilot in Fife, he is now considering whether the practice of non-statutory or consensual stop-and-search should be ended and I welcome this."
Ms Sturgeon said the move would see non-statutory stop-and-search ended for everyone, and she has asked the chief constable to consult with both the SPA and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, and provide an update to the Justice Secretary by the end of March.
Police Scotland figures show that between March 2013 and April 2014, there were 640,699 stop-and-searches, of which 449,095 of these were consensual.
Of the consensual searches, 15.6% were positive, while of the 191,604 statutory searches, 29.9% were positive.
Local policing Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick said: "Stop-and-search has been an important tool in keeping people safe, which remains a priority for both Police Scotland and Scottish Government.
"We will consult with our partners the Scottish Police Authority and Her Majesty's Inspectorate Constabulary in Scotland to ensure that the health and well-being, particularly of young people, is protected through appropriate legislative powers.
"The public consistently tell us that tackling violent crime and anti-social behaviour are a key concern to them. Where it is targeted, intelligence led and used in the right place at the right time, stop-and-search is an effective and legal tactic that helps us tackle the priorities communities set for us.
"Alcohol searches have the highest positive rate for all stop-searches carried out.
"The impact of alcohol on communities remains, and in considering alternative measures to replace consensual stop-searches, we will consult with our partners the Scottish Police Authority and HMICS to ensure that the health and well-being of all our communities is protected through appropriate legislative powers."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article