The former First Minister, Alex Salmond, has expressed concern over proposed changes to stop-and-search in Scotland during a debate in the Scottish Parliament. 

MSPs have approved new legislation that aims to introduce a statutory code for the use of stop and search, however, Mr Salmond said he wanted to see more analysis of how knife crime could be affected. The decision to have a code regarding stop and search came after a report from John Scott QC found that ending the searches would not prevent officers carrying out their duties effectively.

Police Scotland’s stop-and-search policy has been criticised in a report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

The Scottish justice secretary John Scott QC is to lead an inquiry into the Police use of stop and search in Scotland, which could lead to a total ban. 

Almost 20,000 people were stopped and searched by police in 2014, with a one-year-old being stopped in North Ayrshire as part of police strategic tactics to prevent crime.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) have discovered that the rate of searches carried out by Police Scotland, per 10,000 people is nearly nine times higher than that carried out in in the New York Police Department (NYPD)