Summary Offences Act 1953

The

Commissioner may authorise the exercise of powers under this section in relation to a specified public place if there are reasonable grounds to believe—

that an incident of violence or disorder may take place in the area; and

that the exercise of such powers is reasonably necessary to prevent the incident.

An authorisation under this section, or a variation or revocation of an authorisation—

must be granted in accordance with guidelines (if any) issued by the

Commissioner; and

must be by instrument in writing unless the Commissioner is satisfied that circumstances of urgency exist (in which case the authorisation, variation or revocation may be oral, provided that it is reduced to writing as soon as reasonably practicable); and

must specify the public place to which the authorisation relates (which must not be larger than is reasonably necessary for the purposes of the authorisation); and

must specify the grounds for granting the authorisation; and

must specify a period of not more than 6 hours during which the authorisation operates; and

may be subject to conditions specified by the police officer granting the authorisation.

For the purposes of detecting the commission of an offence against

Part 3A, a police officer may, in a public place that is the subject of an authorisation under this section, conduct a search of—

any person who is in, or is apparently attempting to enter or to leave the public place; and

any property in the possession of such a person.

The following provisions apply to a search carried out in accordance with this section:

the search must, in the first instance, be a metal detector search;

if the metal detector search indicates the presence or likely presence of metal, a police officer may require the person to produce items detected by the metal detector (and, for the purpose of determining whether or not the person has produced such items, may conduct further metal detector searches);

if the person refuses or fails to produce any such item, a police officer may, for the purpose of identifying the item, conduct a search in relation to the person or property (which need not be a metal detector search but may be conducted as if it were a search of a person who is reasonably suspected of having, on or about their person an object, possession of which constitutes an offence).

To avoid doubt, a reference in this section to a public place includes a reference to a place of worship.