A total of 56 children were strip searched by police in Lancashire between 2018 and 2022, new figures reveal.

The findings were published by the office of the Children’s Commissioner for England (CCo).

Locations for searches across England and Wales included police vehicles and schools with a small number even taking place in takeaways and amusement parks, the research by the Children’s Commissioner revealed.

The list is a number of strip searches of children under stop and search powers reported by police forces in England and Wales between 2018 and mid-2022.

A total of 2,847 strip searches were reported, but as not all forces responded to the CCo request and due to the poor quality of data, this number should be considered as a minimum.

No data was reported for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Dyfed-Powys, Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire.

In Lancashire the number of children searched was 56 which was 2% share of total searches.

In neighbouring forces the number was 20 (under 1% pf total searches) in Greater Manchester and 10 in Cumbria (under 1%). Merseyside had a figure of 150 which was 5% total searches.

Nationally, Black children were up to six times more likely to be strip-searched by police and more than half of the almost-3,000 strip-searches in recent years have taken place without an appropriate adult present the report said.

Dame Rachel de Souza said the findings demonstrated “evidence of deeply concerning practice” with “widespread non-compliance” with statutory safeguards, and added that children are “being failed by those whose job it is to protect them”.

The commissioner ordered the report after the Child Q scandal which came to light last March.

The 15-year-old black schoolgirl was strip-searched by police while on her period after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at school.

Scotland Yard apologised and said the strip-search at the girl’s school in 2020 without another adult present “should never have happened”.

After that scandal Dame Rachel requested figures for strip-searches by the Metropolitan Police force which, when reported last August, showed more than 600 children underwent “intrusive and traumatising” searches over a two-year period, with black boys disproportionately targeted.

The latest report, published on today (Monday March 27) showed the vast majority of children strip-searched were boys (95%) while 5% of such searches were carried out on girls.

About 38% of children strip-searched were black and the report found black children were up to six times more likely to be strip-searched when compared with national population figures, while white children were around half as likely to be searched.

The report described this as a “pronounced and deeply concerning ethnic disproportionality” and Dame Rachel branded it “utterly unacceptable”.

One per cent of strip-searches were conducted “within public view”, the report said, although the location was not recorded in 45% of cases.

More than half (52%) of strip-searches were conducted without an appropriate adult confirmed to be present.

The presence of an appropriate adult is required by law, except in cases of “urgency”, and is usually a parent or guardian but can also be a social worker, carer or volunteer.

Among her recommendations Dame Rachel is calling for “urgency” to be removed as an exception and said constant supervision should be recommended.

Six per cent of strip-searches were conducted with at least one officer of a different gender than the child being searched present, the report added.

Lancashire Police were approached for comment.