Non-statutory and statutory stop and search per 1000 people, 2010 Stop and search per 1000 people, England & Wales (2010/11), Scotland (2010) Search powers by age-group 2010 Stop and search per 1000 16 year olds, 2010.
The committee said Scottish police should only use statutory stop-and-search powers by properly selecting justifiable targets, to ensure Scotland met the international covenant on civil and political rights; improve training of its officer and ensure "comprehensive data gathering".
Murray said that moving towards statutory stop and search (as against non-statutory, which is reliant on verbal consent) was a significant and necessary step, and said the the inspectorate's challenge to improve recording and statistics around stop and search was particularly welcome.
But it insisted that ending non-statutory stops would not weaken Police Scotland's ability to carry out its duties.
The controversy erupted early in 2014 after an Edinburgh University researcher Kath Murray disclosed figures, reported in the Guardian, that non-statutory stop and search was being heavily used by police against teenagers and children.
The heavy use of non-statutory stop and search – including against children – was a key crime-fighting pledge in the Scottish National party's 2011 election manifesto and was defended by ministers.
Ministers agreed on Thursday to set up a new statutory code on police search powers and to discuss the need for specific powers to search children for alcohol after being warned by Scott that "non-statutory stop and search lacks any legal framework and is of questionable lawfulness and legitimacy, with poor accountability".
The recommendation, in a periodic report on human rights in the UK, follows a fierce controversy in Scotland about the widespread use of non-statutory stop and search by Police Scotland, after it emerged that hundreds of children and thousands of teenagers had been routinely searched without any evidence of wrongdoing.
The report recommends that non-statutory stop and search should be phased out as they impact disproportionately on young people and lack important safeguards.
The authors of the report also highlighted the extensive use of non-statutory stop and search, which is premised on verbal consent rather than legislation.
Chief Constable House introduced the tricks he had learned as Glasgow's Chief Constable nationally, including the controversial and possibly human-rights-act-breaching, non-statutory stop and search laws.
