A POLICE watchdog has confirmed that Cheshire Police is now complying with the Best Use of Stop Search scheme seven months after concerns were raised about the force's enforcement of the powers.

Chief constable Simon Byrne welcomed the news after Cheshire Police were suspended from the scheme with immediate effect in February.

He added: "As a force, this is an issue that we have taken extremely seriously since it was highlighted in our inspection.

“Stop and search is a vital power for the police service to protect people and reduce and deter criminality in the local community.

"It is imperative that we apply our powers to individuals in a fair and legitimate way and that our actions are monitored to give the public confidence in how we use stop and search in Cheshire."

Police and crime commissioner for Cheshire David Keane said the public can be reassured that the constabulary has raised its standards since the inspection. 

He said: "The constabulary has improved public scrutiny in this area. 

"This includes recruiting a panel of lay observers to see first-hand the work carried out by officers and to feedback on this to the Strategic Stop and Search Scrutiny Panel.

The decision to suspend Cheshire Police from the scheme came after a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) uncovered too many of the stop and search records did not contain sufficient reasonable grounds for conducting the search.

It was also revealed that there was no evidence to suggest that the force was undertaking analysis to understand why black, Asian and minority ethnic people were disproportionately affected by stop and search in Cheshire.

Cheshire Police was one of 13 forces in England and Wales who were failing to comply with at least three of the five elements of the scheme, which they voluntarily signed up to following its launch in 2014.

The Best Use of Stop and Search scheme was launched in December 2014 to achieve greater transparency to the public.