Clause 3 - Drug offence searches: England and Wales
Drugs Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Shadow Minister (Northern Ireland), Northern Ireland Affairs; Orkney and Shetland, Liberal Democrat)
I can certainly support amendment No. 33. It seems to me sensible to clarify that consent should be put in writing. It would, I presume, be the sort of thing that would be put into a form that would be completed and signed as appropriate. If it were not signed, it would be made clear that the opportunity to sign had been given and that the person had not taken it.
I am not so sure about amendment No. 32. There will be occasions when it is not necessarily the person to be searched who is in a position to give consent and situations where the capacity of the person to be searched is in doubt. So it is appropriate that we retain the words ''the appropriate'' in the clause.