Staffordshire Police found in breach of controversial stop and search rules

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) assessed the force over the summer and found it to not to be recording or publishing outcomes from the searches.

It meant the force was failing to meet one of five key requirements.

However, it was a marked improvement on the first inspection last year where the force was found not to be meeting the standards in three areas leading it to be suspended from the government's Best Use of Stop and Search (BUSS) scheme with 12 other forces.

Inspectors say since the re-inspection that the force is now fully meeting the expected standards.

It will now be up for the Home Secretary Amber Rudd to decided whether Staffordshire can be re-admitted into the BUSS scheme.

Her Majesty's Inspector Mike Cunningham, a former Staffordshire Chief Constable, said: "When we carried out revisit inspections this year, we were concerned to find that seven forces still weren't complying with all features of the scheme.

"While we are encouraged that these forces have since achieved compliance, and now all 13 forces revisited are compliant, it is disappointing that it has taken so long for forces to get there; 18 months or more after volunteering to participate in the scheme."

Chief Inspector Robert Taylor, the force's lead for Best Use of Stop and Search, said: "We are pleased to be recognised as now fully compliant again in terms of Best Use of Stop and Search.

"The force is fully compliant on all five points of the Best Use of Stop and Search scheme and our communities can be confident in our abilities to deliver on this. Following a document and website review by HMIC, which highlighted we were still not complying with one feature (recording and publishing outcomes), further work was carried out which confirmed full compliancy. We are pleased that during the review HMIC recognised some innovative processes we have in place to meet with compliancy."

Matthew Ellis, Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire, said: "This is an exceptionally sensitive and difficult area of police work.

"It is a power that must be used in a fair, transparent and proportionate way. It is, however, an essential tool for the police to have and to use. My office has worked closely with Staffordshire Police to improve the use of stop and search and uniquely, in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, we have established panels where trained members of the public play a pivotal role in examining the way those powers are used.

"Local people on the county-wide Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel (ETAP) recommended improvements, including mandatory filming of all stop and searches via the body-worn video cameras officers now have, while members on the 11 Safer Neighbourhood Panels examine the footage of officers actually using the powers on the streets.

"Good work by officers on the streets and a system of governance that reinforces the vital community connection with policing means rigorous transparency and improved public confidence is becoming a reality as well as the ambition." West Mercia was one of the 13 forces to be found not to be complying with the standards last year – but in the re-inspection it was found to be meeting all requirements.