BLACK people are more likely to be stopped and searched by police in Lancashire, new data has revealed.

The stop and search rate was 12.7 per 1,000 people compared to 3.6 per 1,000 for white people and five per cent per 1,000 for Asian people.

The figures were revealed on a new Government website which brings together information about how ethnicity affects people’s lives.

Launched by Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday the site contains thousands of statistics covering more than 130 topics in areas including health, education, employment and the criminal justice system.

Mrs May hopes it will challenge society to explain or change disparities in how people from different backgrounds are treated.

The site shows nationally employment rates are higher for white people than for ethnic minorities and ethnic minorities are under-represented at senior levels across the public sector.

While education data shows Chinese and Asian pupils tend to perform better compared to their white and black counterparts.

In Blackburn with Darwen 71 per cent of Asian pupils achieved A* to C English and Maths in GCSEs last year compared to 53 per cent of black pupils and 61 per cent of white pupils.

Black pupils in Blackburn with Darwen also saw the biggest gap between girls and boys in the North West at 64 percentage points.

In Lancashire, the percentage of fixed period exclusions for black people was 4.12 per cent and 1.82 per cent for Asian compared to 0.94 per cent for white children.

In Blackburn with Darwen the rate was slightly higher for white pupils at 2.97 per cent, 0.69 per cent for Asian pupils and 2.79 per cent for black pupils.

In the North West people from ethnic minorities had a higher rate of unemployment than white people at nine per cent compared to five per cent.

Faz Patel, an indepedent advisor on community cohesion, said he welcomed the publication of the data.

He said: “Employers and educators will be able look at this site and identify where the issues are.

“We do have problems, not just in the BME community but, as this website shows, in all sections of the community.

“The country as a whole has to look at what the issues are and why they are happening and hopefully by working together we can make a difference.”

A spokesman for Lancashire police said: "Stop and search is a useful police power and we do all we can to ensure that our use of that power is consistent, fair and effective.

“Lancashire police has a culture among officers and staff of treating people with respect and courtesy in all interactions, including stop and search, and we train all staff to use stop and search fairly and appropriately.

“We continue to use both internal and external scrutiny, including our ride along scheme, of our use of stop and search to ensure its use is fair and appropriate.”

Mrs May said: “People who have lived with discrimination don’t need a government audit to make them aware of the scale of the challenge.

“But this audit means that for society as a whole, for government, for our public services, there is nowhere to hide. These issues are now out in the open.

“And the message is very simple: if these disparities cannot be explained then they must be changed.”