Violent Crime Reduction Bill

moved Amendment No. 1: Page 46, line 4, leave out ““may”” and insert ““must”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 1, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 2. The amendments simply ask the Government to provide further clarification about issues we touched on in Committee and on Report. I welcome the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland of Asthal, to our proceedings. The noble Lord, Lord Bassam, has done sterling service throughout all previous stages, so I wait with bated breath to see why we have been targeted by a Minister of State as well. I hope my amendments will give the Minister the opportunity to carry out his commitment given at col. 620 on Report. Clause 45 introduces a power to search school pupils for weapons. We have made it clear that we support that measure. Paragraph 312 of the Explanatory Notes states that, "““in the case of maintained schools (which carry out a public function), there is an obligation to act compatibly with Convention rights and schools will be given guidance on how to ensure that searches are carried out compatibly with Convention rights””." In Committee, I tabled an amendment to probe what kind of guidance would be given by the Government regarding how searches would be carried out and what training would be required. In particular, I asked what training would be given in schools to those carrying out the searches to ensure that the search was carried out in an appropriate manner. In practice, the Minister did not respond to that question, perhaps simply because my amendment was at that stage grouped with a number of government amendments that had already been spoken to by him. In so doing he referred at col. 637 on 22 May to the fact that guidelines would be issued. The problem was that we did not obtain any further information about precisely what those guidelines might address. That debate was five months ago. Since then concern has been expressed particularly over the past two weeks about the wearing of veils in schools and elsewhere. I therefore felt that it was only right to give the Government the opportunity to put on record their view on the interpretation of the powers of search within that context. On my reading of the Government's drafting, they have tried to cover the matter in the most sensible and sensitive way, but we need to be sure. Clause 45(5) permits a member of staff to require a pupil to remove outer clothing. Does that include the hijab? The subsection also states that the member of staff who carries out the search of the pupil while looking for weapons must be of same sex as the pupil and, "““may carry out the search only in the presence of another member of the staff who is also of the same sex as the pupil””." In my amendment I stipulate that the first member of staff must carry out the search only when the second member of the staff is the same sex as the pupil. I anticipate that the use of the word ““may”” in subsection (5)(c) is intended to have the same force as ““must”” in subsection (5)(b). I am puzzled why the terminology is different. It could lead those not used to parliamentary drafting to assume that a different objective is sought. I suspect that the objective is not different. Amendment No. 2 gives the Secretary of State the power to issue guidance regarding how the search powers in subsection (5) may be carried out. In particular it allows the Secretary of State to specify what should be considered as outer clothing. It is therefore more targeted than the amendment I tabled in Committee, which covered the whole clause. How will guidance regarding the searches be formulated? Will there be national guidance from the Secretary of State after consultation with schools, their governing bodies, local authorities, teachers’ unions and professional associations, or will the guidance be provided by individual local authorities or schools? What progress have the Government made on this matter since the clause was published over a year ago in July 2005? I beg to move.