UK policing minister criticised for ‘lack of urgency’ over Child Q strip search

Child Q was strip-searched by female Metropolitan Police officers at her school in 2020 without another adult present and in the knowledge that she was menstruating

People demonstrate outside Stoke Newington Police Station in London, over the treatment of a black 15-year-old schoolgirl who was strip-searched by police while on her period. (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The UK policing minister has been criticised for a “distinct lack of urgency” after repeatedly saying the Government must wait for the outcome of a police watchdog report into the strip search of a black schoolgirl.

Kit Malthouse said Child Q “could have been any one of our relatives” as he condemned the “dreadful” incident, adding that the revulsion provoked by the case “is not confined to women”.