Clause 50 - Specimens taken from persons incapable of consenting
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
5:45 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State (Police, Courts and Drugs), Home Office; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
The amendment would protect a person who is unconscious after an accident by providing that a constable cannot ask for a blood specimen to be taken if the medical practitioner who has clinical care of the person objects. I can reassure the hon. Gentleman by saying that reflects the intention of the Bill. The amendment is not necessary. He had advantage over me by referring to a particular communication from the BMA, which I have not received.
I wish to make it clear, however, that the clause only empowers a medical practitioner to take a specimen. It does not require him to do so. It allows the individual practitioner at his discretion to refuse the police request, for example, if he thought that taking a specimen could be detrimental to the patient's health or if his ethical beliefs would not allow him to do so. It is worth saying, incidentally in relation to our earlier discussion, that the clause does not allow a nurse to take specimens in such cases. We have not extended the role to other registered health care professionals, which was a deliberate act in view of ethnical considerations and the likely medical condition of the patient. To reiterate, the amendments to the Road Traffic Act 1988 introduced under clause 50(1) make it lawful, but not compulsory, for a medical practitioner to take a specimen when requested, if he thinks fit.