(2) what guidance his Department has given to (a) schools and (b) teachers on their powers to confiscate weapons from students;
(3) how many (a) guns, (b) knives and (c) other weapons have been confiscated by teachers from (i) primary school students and (ii) secondary school students in each of the last 12 months;
(4) how many teachers in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools have confiscated (i) guns, (ii) knives and (iii) other weapons from pupils in each of the last 12 months.
We have issued guidance to school staff on how to comply with the law when they screen pupils at random or search, without consent, a pupil whom they suspect has a weapon. Our guidance includes advice on the power to seize anything that could be used as an offensive weapon and states that any suspected illegal weapon, once seized after a search or screening, must be delivered to the police as soon as is reasonably practical. The guidance, ‘Screening and Searching of Pupils for Weapons: Guidance for School Staff’(May 2007) is at
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/healthandsafety/schoolsecurity/.
We do not collect data on the confiscation of weapons by school staff.