SCOTLAND'S top police officer has been forced to deny that the public is losing confidence in the national force due to his handling of the deepening row over stop and searches.

Sir Stephen House faced heavy criticism from MSPs on Holyrood's justice sub-committee on policing, who were told last year that under-12s would no longer be subjected to voluntary stop and searches only to later discover that the practice had continued.

In fraught exchanges, the chief constable refused to acknowledge that the public had become increasingly concerned over the issue, as MSPs received conflicting information over whether frontline officers had been given targets for the number of searches they should carry out.

Both Sir Stephen and Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson insisted that there had never been a volume target around the tactic, which allows officers to search members of the public without any evidence they have done anything wrong.

However, Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said that many of his members were "telling him something different".

Meanwhile, an email from a recently retired police officer sent to Labour shadow justice secretary Hugh Henry claimed that Sir Stephen "runs a target driven culture" and that "the meeting of arbitrary targets has become the be all and end all within the force".

The former officer told Mr Henry: "The drive to meet stop and search targets has put pressure on shift supervisors to get their officers to increase stop and searches, to the extent that so called 'consensual' stop and searches are recorded for almost every contact an officer has with the public."

The contradiction was described by Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell as "breathtaking".

She added: "We've got Calum Steele stating quite clearly that the hostility towards stop and search was due to a numbers-driven target approach.

"You're the chief constable, the responsibility for communicating with the rank and file from the top down rests with you. Clearly, there has been a huge communication problem."

Highlands and Islands MSP John Finnie said that the good work of police was being undermined because the chief constable had "become the story".

He raised previous controversies since the inception of Police Scotland such as the use of armed police on routine duties and the closing of police stations to the public.

He asked Sir Stephen: "Are you doing a fantastic job chief constable? Is it in any way impacting on the effectiveness or efficiency of Police Scotland, how you are conducting yourself?"

Sir Stephen replied: "I try my best" and added that statistics suggested that confidence in the force remained high.

He admitted that he should have "expressed myself better" when he told the Scottish Police Authority that he had been forced by the Information Commissioner to release inaccurate figures over the stop and searching of children to the media.

It later transpired that Police Scotland had handed over the figures voluntarily. The force now claims that just 18 under 12s, rather than the hundreds originally reported, have been stopped and searched on a voluntary basis since the pledge the practice would end.

Sir Stephen admitted that while subjecting young children to consensual searches was against force policy, officers could still utilise the tactic if they deemed it appropriate as it was not illegal.

He said many parts of Scotland were now safer than they were five years ago because of the effectiveness of stop and search in tackling "violent gang crime".

Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes, who during the session claimed that support for Police Scotland was "ebbing away fast", called for stop and searches to be put on a legal footing.

"It isn't fair on communities or on police officers to have a system where police chiefs have free rein," she said. "If we are being told consensual stop and searches of children will end, it must end."

Nicola Sturgeon announced a fortnight ago that Police Scotland was to investigate ending all consensual stop and searches. Yesterday, she said she believed the current situation regarding stop and searches was "unsatisfactory" but she insisted she retained confidence in the police.