The use of force by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers on Oldham’s under-18s has surged, data obtained by The Oldham Times in a Freedom of Information Request suggests.

In some cases, police have even drawn CS gas on children younger than 11 – despite its use being banned in war.

While police records contain just 34 reports of the use of force on 11-17-year-olds in Oldham in 2018, that figure stood at 229 in 2021.

And in 2022 so far, the figure is already double that of 2018, at 68.

According to GMP, if two officers used force on the same person it would count as two reports.

The rise in the number of reports, however, does suggest the use of force is becoming more common.

Across Greater Manchester, there were over 8,300 reports of the use of force on 11-17-year-olds since 2017, and exactly 100 on 0-10-year-olds.

There were 11 reports of Taser use involving 0-10-year-olds in the Greater Manchester data – including one ‘unintentional discharge’ in Tameside in 2019.

In Oldham, a child under the age of 11 was ‘red-dotted’ by police with a Taser in 2018.

For Oldhamers aged 11-17, there have been 31 reports of Taser use since 2017.

Also in Oldham, a child under the age of 11 was involved in an incident this year where police drew CS gas, though they did not spray it.

In February, a Greater Manchester Police officer was given a written warning by the Independent Office for Police Conduct due to his use of CS spray while arresting a 13-year-old boy in Moss Side, Manchester.

Also known as tear gas, its use is banned in war under the Geneva Protocol of 1925.

Despite this, it is legal for police to use domestically.

In their response to the Freedom of Information Act request, GMP said: “Each officer reports their own personal use of force.

“In cases where more than one officer used force on the same individual, there should be one record per officer for the incident.

“The records of use of force represent these individual officer submissions, therefore they do not equate to the number of incidents where force was used, nor do they represent the number of individuals against whom force was used.”

GMP explained: “More than one tactic may be recorded in each submission. Therefore the counts cannot be aggregated to a total number of incidents.”

GMP went on to say that age information is the perceived age at the time of the incident by the officer making the report, and that incident data for designated public order incidents is not included in the counts.

GMP did not respond to requests for comment on this article.