Commentary on Sections Schedule 14: Deployment of the judiciary Section 30: Supreme Court security officers
451.Subsection (1) inserts new sections 51A to 51E in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 which provide for Supreme Court security officers who will operate in any building where the business of the UK Supreme Court or the judicial committee of the Privy Council is carried on. The new sections are based on sections 51 to 57 of the Courts Act 2003 (security officers for other courts).
452.Subsection (2) amends section 48 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 so that the power of the President of the UK Supreme Court to appoint security officers provided in the new provisions on court security (new sections 51A to 51E) may be delegated to the Chief Executive of the UK Supreme Court
453.New section 51A (Supreme Court security officers) establishes that every Supreme Court security officer must be appointed by the President of the Supreme Court under section 49(1) or provided under a contract. They must also be designated as security officers by the President. It is envisaged that there will be a period of training. New section 51A(2) enables the President to give directions for training and to specify the conditions which must be met before a person can be designated as a Supreme Court security officer. New section 51A(3) provides that Supreme Court security officers must be identifiable. For the purposes of these sections “court building” means any building where the business of the UK Supreme Court, or of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, is carried on, and where the public has access.
454.New section 51B (Powers of search, exclusion, removal and restraint) gives a Supreme Court security officer power to search a person who is entering, or who is already in, a court building and also any article in such a person’s possession. Supreme Court security officers may only require the removal of a coat, jacket, headgear, gloves or footwear. New section 51B(4) provides the Supreme Court security officers with powers to restrain persons, or exclude or remove them from the UK Supreme Court. Officers may exclude or remove a person who has refused to submit to a search, or has refused the officer’s request for surrender of an article where the officer reasonably believes that the article ought to be surrendered on the grounds that it may jeopardise the maintenance of order in the UK Supreme Court, may risk the safety of a person, or because the article may be evidence of or in relation to an offence. They also have the power to restrain, exclude or remove a person if it is reasonably necessary to do so to maintain order, secure the safety of people in the UK Supreme Court or enable its business to be conducted without disruption. New section 51B(6) provides that a Supreme Court security officer may also remove any person from a courtroom at the request of a judge of the UK Supreme Court or a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. New section 51B(7) provides that the powers to exclude, remove and restrain persons include the power to use reasonable force.
455.New section 51C (Surrender, seizure and retention of knives and other articles) requires a Supreme Court security officer to request the surrender of any article that the officer reasonably believes ought to be surrendered. An officer may also seize an article where the officer has requested its surrender but the request has been refused. Specific grounds for surrender and seizure are laid out in new section 51C(2)(a) to (c): because possession of the article may jeopardise the maintenance of order in the UK Supreme Court building, or may risk the safety of a person in that building or because the article may be evidence of or in relation to an offence. A Supreme Court security officer may retain an article surrendered or seized until the person from whom it was taken is leaving the court building. However, where the officer reasonably believes that the article may be evidence of or in relation to an offence, the officer may retain it until the person from whom it was taken is leaving the court building, or, for a limited period of up to 24 hours from the time the article was surrendered or seized, to enable the officer to draw it to the attention of a police constable.
456.In conjunction with the Supreme Court security officers’ powers to retain an article surrendered or seized under new section 51C it is important that any items so retained are suitably recorded. The person from whom the article is taken must also be provided with adequate information about the terms of retention and given notice that when an article becomes unclaimed it will be disposed of. New section 51D (Regulations about retention of knives and other articles) provides the Lord Chancellor with a power to make regulations which include provision of written information about the powers of retention; the keeping of records; the period of retention; and the disposal of articles after this period. This new section defines an unclaimed article as one that has been retained and which a person is entitled to have returned but which the person has not requested and which has not been returned.
457.New section 51E (Assaulting and obstructing court security officers) provides that assaulting a Supreme Court security officer in the execution of the officer’s duty is an offence punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding level 5 (£5000) on the standard scale or imprisonment for up to six months. It also provides that resisting or wilfully obstructing a Supreme Court security officer in the execution of the officer’s duty is an offence punishable on summary conviction with a fine not exceeding level 3 (£1000) on the standard scale.