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14 August 2026 / Michael Zander KC
Issue: 8174 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Human rights , Public
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Consent matters

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A judicial review has ruled that a consensual transgender strip search may be lawful notwithstanding PACE’s same-sex search provision: Michael Zander KC reports
  • Consent can make a transgender strip search lawful even where it departs from PACE’s same-sex search provision, the High Court has ruled.
  • The article explores the judgment’s implications for police powers and the future scope of PACE safeguards.

Section 54 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE 1984) is headed ‘Searches of detained persons’. Sub-section (9) states: ‘The constable carrying out a search shall be of the same sex as the person searched.’

Guidance issued in 2025 by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the British Transport Police provides that as long as both the suspect and the officer agree, a transgender person may be strip searched by an officer of a different biological sex. Judicial review brought by the charity Sex Matters challenged the guidance as contrary to s 54(9), PACE 1984. Mr Justice Linden held on 31 July that the challenge failed

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