Stop and Search code of practice: twelve month review - quantitative report

Findings of a quantitative study which evaluates change in the use of police searches and alcohol seizures in the twelve months before and after the introduction of the Code of Practice.


Footnotes

1. Note that the NSSU Stop and Search Database does not include the number of strip or intimate searches carried out following arrest which is considerably higher.

2. The data provided by ISD were derived from data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals (SMR01) in Scotland. A hospital stay (also described as a continuous inpatient stay or CIS), is defined as an unbroken period of time that a patient spends as an inpatient or day-case. During a stay a patient may have numerous episodes as they change consultant, significant facility, speciality and/or hospital. Stays are counted at the point of discharge, when all diagnostic information regarding the full stay is available. However, the demographic information (NHS Board) is taken from the first episode of the stay, thus most closely corresponding to the circumstances of the patient at the point of entering the hospital.

3. The p value for this difference was 0.068, which is just above the threshold for a 95% confidence interval.

4. These figures were provided by Police Scotland and should be treated as management information only.

5. These figures were provided by Police Scotland and should be treated as management information only.

6. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2017/statistics-for-april-2017

7. It is not possible to determine how much of the change in rate of seizure for young people is due to a reduction in the use of Section 61 as opposed to a reduction in the use of Local Authority Byelaws as that information was not recorded on the Stop and Search Database prior to the introduction of the CoP.

8. Note that when regression analysis is conducted, it is essential to have a reference category against whom the other groups are compared (these are noted for each variable in the model). The choice of reference category does not skew the results of the analysis although it has implications for how the data should be interpreted.

Contact

Email: ryan.paterson@gov.scot

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