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NLJ this week: The dangers of suspicionless stop & search

17 March 2023
Issue: 8017 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal , Procedure & practice , Public
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‘Suspicionless’ stop and search is one of many controversial provisions in the Public Order Bill. Public and media attention has also focused on its restrictions on protest. Writing in this week’s NLJ, Neil Parpworth, of Leicester De Montfort Law School, looks in more detail at clauses 10 and 11, which sought to extend the powers of stop and search.

Parpworth traces the journey of the Bill, and the arguments put forward for and against its provisions, including Lord Paddick’s comments on the racially disproportionate use of stop and search, and its damaging impact.

He writes: ‘The Lords’ act of excising clause 11 from the Public Order Bill at the report stage thus represents a tangible manifestation of justifiable concerns relating to the very existence of suspicionless stop and search powers… Thus far, however, the government has acted unwisely in this matter. Accordingly, while it is hoped that the Home Office will take heed of the Lords’ opposition to a new suspicionless stop and search power and refrain from reintroducing clause 11 when the Bill returns to the Commons, the likelihood is that it will.’ 

Read the full article here.

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NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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