Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle racial disparities in drug-related stop and search rates.

Disparity in the use of stop and search has reduced significantly in the past five years, but there is still far more work to do. In the year to March 2024, black people were 3.5 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched on suspicion of carrying drugs. The disparity rate for stop and search as whole (including searches for weapons, stolen goods, etc) is 3.7.

That is why the Government backs the National Police Chief’s Council’s Police Race Action Plan. The Plan aims to foster an anti-racist culture, values and behaviours within policing, which will inform all operational policing practice, improving experiences and outcomes for black people.

On stop and search in particular, the Plan commits chief constables to identifying and addressing stop and search disparities, particularly on drugs searches and the searches of children.

I will be working with police leaders to ensure the aims of the plan are adopted and embedded in all forces.