HL Deb 12 December 1988 vol 502 cc761-2

2.49 p.m.

Baroness David asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the position of police officers wishing to become members of school governing bodies.

Viscount Davidson

My Lords, police officers who are considering service as a school governor should ensure that their chief officer has no objection.

Baroness David

My Lords, is it the Government's intention that police officers who are not parents of children at the school should be appointed as governors? I have received a communication from one area of the country which states specifically that police officers shall not take on the duties of school governor unless they are parents. The explanation is that this would mean that resources would be engaged in that way. May we know the Government's attitude to that?

Viscount Davidson

My Lords, it has always been one of the principles of the Police Service that police officers have to be seen to be totally impartial in the discharge of their duties. It is for the chief officer to try to ensure this, as police forces are under his direction and control.

Lord Taylor of Blackburn

My Lords, is the Minister aware that in rural areas in parricular, where a policeman is invited to serve on the governing body as a representative of the community, the liaison between the police and the school is first class? He is acting as a member of the community and as a police officer, and this is good. This is surely a most enlightened aspect that we were trying to accomplish through the 1988 Act.

Viscount Davidson

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord. It is absolutely right that police officers should in certain circumstances be allowed to be governors of schools. I would not expect the circumstances in which there is a potential conflict of interest between an individual's employment and service as a school governor to arise very often.

Lord John-Mackie

My Lords, has the Minister seen the picture of the sergeant and six children on the front page of the magazine Police, which many noble Lords may have received? Such a sergeant would make an excellent governor of a school.

Viscount Davidson

My Lords, I have seen it.

Lord Peston

My Lords, will the noble Viscount go a little further? He used the expression "conflict of interest". Many of us fail to see how there could ever be a conflict of interest. The argument goes all the other way. There is an enormous concatenation of interest between the police as members of the community and their work as police officers. It would be a great pity if any chief constable were to take the view that there were difficulties when most of us believe that there are no likely difficulties.

Viscount Davidson

My Lords, that may be so. However, there is at the moment a Court of Appeal judgment in a case of this nature. I cannot comment on this any further, as the Police Federation is seeking leave to appeal to the House of Lords at the moment on that case.

Baroness David

My Lords, is the department putting forward any evidence or taking a line about which way this matter should go?

Viscount Davidson

My Lords, not so far as I know.