Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will encourage Ofsted to recommend that schools to accept knife arches and other anti-knife crime measures on their premises to help dissuade children from carrying weapons for self-defence or other purposes; and if he will make a statement.

No one should ever feel the need to take weapons into schools. It is unacceptable and doing so is a criminal offence. Schools have a statutory power to search for and confiscate prohibited items such as knives and weapons.

The Department has produced advice for schools which makes it clear that school staff can search pupils or their possessions, without consent where there are reasonable grounds to do so. This guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/searching-screening-and-confiscation. If a pupil refuses to be searched, then the school may bar them from its premises.

The Department is also working with the Home Office and other stakeholders, including the Police, Ofsted and the Health and Safety Executive, on updating its school security advice. This will reference knife crime and encourage schools to develop policies and cultures to help address the issue of carrying knives.