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Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (Codes of Practice) Order 2005

My Lords, I endorse what has been said. We welcome the Minister’s explanation of these orders. I want to raise three matters, however: stop and search powers; the execution of warrants; and the ““appropriate adult””. A number of issues need further clarification. First, stop and search powers, under PACE, are based on reasonable suspicion. The police must have reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed. This has often been problematic, and there is ample evidence that these powers have often resulted in adversarial contact between police, young people, and persons from the black and Asian minority communities. This is not helped when the British Transport Police are reported to have said that persons of Asian appearance should not be surprised if they are searched more often—a statement made after 7 July. Does this means that there should be evidence of suspicion, or that people of a particular colour will be victims even if a suspicion is not there? We now understand that the same requirements are placed on community support officers. Can the Minister explain whether this is the case? If so, we wish to know what training is provided to such officers to implement Section 23 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Would they be subject to complaints to the IPCC? If, on the other hand, the Minister were to tell me that, under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, there is another power to stop and search, because that power is directed in a different way, we would want to know how a person being searched could find out under what power he or she was being searched. Will the Minister confirm that CSOs would play no part under the Terrorism Act? Secondly, on the execution of warrants, how are these warrants to be scrutinised? If someone of inspector or higher rank is scrutinising, then we still have police scrutinising other police officers. This cannot be satisfactory. Thirdly, the ““appropriate adult”” described under the code dealing with drug testing is often an important safeguard for young and vulnerable detainees. There is serious concern that it would be appropriate for the police to question an appropriate adult in exceptional circumstances. What ““exceptional circumstances”” does the Minister have in mind? I raise my concern, because important safeguards ought not to be eroded, and we want a proper record of our concerns and the Minister’s explanation, so that there is no ambiguity in the implementation of these orders.