Stop and Search Powers

Baroness Blower Excerpts

Wednesday 17th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

I wonder if I can press the Minister to comment on the figure just given by the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, which is in the public domain—that black people are 18 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people. Can she comment on this in the light of the case reported in the Guardian of a 14 year-old black schoolboy, who claims to have been stopped and searched 30 times in the last two years, including on one occasion when he left his home to put out rubbish? Does the Minister agree that stop and search is often a crude tactic, that there is a well-founded perception that it is based on racial stereotyping and that once a young person—a child, in fact—has become a target, they tend to remain one?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

The noble Lord, Lord Paddick, has often quoted that statistic and he is absolutely not wrong.