Clause 26

Part of Protection of Freedoms Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:15 pm on 5 April 2011.

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Photo of James Brokenshire James Brokenshire Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) 3:15, 5 April 2011

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. The hon. Member for Gedling is obviously sensitive to the use of force, but he is suggesting that teachers would physically have to take the biometric in such a case, and I caution him in that regard. This may be a wider point of debate on the clause, but is he really saying that he wants to use force in such circumstances? I suspect that he is not. I can see that Mr Streeter is shifting in his seat, so I will return to the specific amendments, but no doubt we will return to the broader debate.

As we have heard, amendments 88, 80 and 86 deal with issues around parents’ consent to the use of their children’s biometric data. Clause 26 requires both parents of the child to consent before schools and colleges are able to process their children’s biometric information. This right to consent is one that many parents feel very strongly they should have. Amendment 80 seeks to amend clause 26, such that the consent of only one parent is required before the child’s biometric information can be processed by a school or college. I expect that the intention of the hon. Member for Eltham in proposing the amendment is to reduce the administrative burden on schools and colleges when complying with the requirements of clauses 26 to 28.

The clauses as drafted recognise that each parent should have the right to consent before their child’s biometric data are processed by a school or college. Given the sensitive nature of biometric information and the strong feeling that many parents have on this issue, it would be wrong for one parent to be able to consent to such processing and for the strongly held views of another parent to be potentially disregarded. In many cases, parents will obviously discuss the issues involved and are likely to reach some agreement on whether the biometric data of their child should be processed by a school or college.

However, members of the Committee will appreciate that circumstances will arise where parents may have very different views on such a complex and emotive issue. One can easily imagine a situation where parents are separated and where one parent is content for the biometric data of their child to be processed when the other parent is not. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will agree that for those reasons we should respect the rights of both parents to consent to the use of their child’s biometric data by a school or college.