The outcome of a consultation on whether police should have the power to search children under 18 for alcohol is not being pre-empted, the Justice Secretary has insisted.
Michael Matheson was responding to concerns raised at Holyrood's Justice Committee during its consideration of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill.
The Scottish Government has brought forward amendments to the Bill in order to implement the recommendations of an advisory group on the controversial practice of stop-and-search.
It recommended that the use of non-statutory or consensual stop-and-search should end when a new code of practice comes into effect.
The group said Police Scotland had raised concerns about an inability to use search powers to remove alcohol from young people, and called for the issue to be considered separately via a public consultation.
One of the amendments will allow Scottish ministers to legislate to provide a power to stop-and-search children under 18 for alcohol, subject to Parliament's approval.
Liberal Democrat MSP Alison McInnes pointed out concerns raised by organisations including Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People that the move would be "premature".
She said: "(The charity) Children 1st indicate that they are concerned about the possibility that such a power could lead to unintended consequences for children, for example criminalisation and a higher rate of statutory stop-and-search in Scotland.
"The review group went on to conclude, 'we therefore recommend this should be considered separately subject to wider consultation'.
"I agree that there is no need to have this provision in this Bill."
Mr Matheson said: "The intention behind this is not to pre-empt anything, but to create an enabling power so that following consultation as recommended by the advisory group that if that power is necessary in order to create the statutory provision for the searching of those under 18 for alcohol, Parliament will have an opportunity to address that.
"I do think there's an inherent danger that should we conduct a consultation and then find that the recommendation is that we should have something, there is a gap identified, that we have no legislative vehicle to then pursue that issue if we don't take forward this particular provision."
Members of the committee backed the inclusion of the provision in the Bill by eight votes to one.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel