The British education secretary has said policies are under review after police strip-searched a 15-year-old schoolgirl because she "smelt" of cannabis.
Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC's Sunday Politics show the incident that came to light this week was "appalling".
"I am reviewing what our guidelines, or polices are on this", Zahawi said. “No child should have been exposed to that sort of trauma in any way".
London's Metropolitan Police Service said earlier this week that two officers had been suspended from duty over the search of the unnamed "Child Q" at a school in the borough of Hackney.
The incident occurred more than a year earlier, in December 2020, when teachers called the police with suspicions that the girl was in possession of drugs.
The minister stressed that "the school has apologised" and did not know the child was being strip-searched.
"It’s important that we take this very seriously”, said Zahawi. “The parents weren’t even contacted, which I find hugely distressing".
"You don’t have to have a child to be shocked that a child is allowed to be strip-searched in an environment which is meant to be a protective environment — school is a protective environment for children — hence why I have asked my team to make sure that we review the policies", Zahawi said.
The police force has also apologised for the incident, although three other officers involved were not suspended.
Hackney's borough police commander Detective Chief Superintendent Marcus Barnett admitted the police should not have been involved in the incident, and the school “should not have called us”.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick was forced to resign last month, just weeks before the end of her term, after Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared he had lost confidence in her leadership over the failure to discipline officers accused of racism.
But that followed a string of scandals, including the abduction, rape, and murder of London woman Sarah Everard by off-duty officer Wayne Couzens and the force's crackdown on a candle-light vigil in her memory.