POLICY & PRACTICE: Briefing - Government advises on school drugtests

So it seems schools are going to become like the locker rooms at the Olympic Games. It depends who you believe. The Prime Minister appears to have raised the prospect of random drug testing in schools in a newspaper interview. But, thankfully, the News of the World is not the last word on the matter. Tony Blair was alluding to guidance from the Department for Education and Skills on responding to drugs in schools.

So can they do random tests or not?

The Children's Legal Centre, among others, thinks not, as it would break Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The guidance makes no specific reference to random searches or testing. What it does say is that the procedures where searches and tests are possible should be laid out explicitly in school policy and that good practice, though not the law, requires that parents should give written consent. Consent of the individual should always be asked. If it is refused, schools may consider calling the police, but in a way that "minimises potential embarrassment or distress". Heads have the power to decide on urine testing and use of sniffer dogs. However, an appendix to the guidance says tests and dogs should not, because of the risk of breaking European law, be used simply as a deterrent when there are not reasonable grounds for suspicion.