Nadhim Zahawi said she found the case of the child – who was investigated by police at her school when she was 15 years old without her parents’ consent and knowing she was menstruating – “extremely painful”. He told the BBC’s Sunday Morning show that the investigation, which took place after the child was suspected of possessing cannabis, was “disgusting” and had ordered a review of strip research guidelines and policies. “No child should have been exposed to this kind of trauma. “It’s important that we take this very seriously,” he said. “He did not even contact his parents, which I find very sad. “You do not have to have a child to be shocked to be allowed to look for a child in an environment that is meant to be a protective environment – the school is a protective environment for children – so I asked my team to make sure we review policies. “ Zahawi said he was looking to “issue much tougher guidelines.” At present, schools are not required to inform parents before conducting an investigation and only police officers can conduct a thorough investigation. On Friday, the girls’ school said teachers did not know at the time that flower research was being conducted and that there were no staff members. A statement from Hackney’s school board stated that “although the school was not aware that strip research was taking place, we fully accept that the child should not have been left alone.” A safeguard report on the incident last week contained two recommendations, asking the Ministry of Education to “review and revise” the 2018 directives on “investigation, control and confiscation”, parts of which it said could be “They run the risk of promoting bad practices.” “As it stands, his tone is very much about discipline and is likely to lead front-line staff to this path of practice,” the report said. The guidance – which contained “alarmingly” outdated terminology such as “child pornography” – needed to be updated as a matter of urgency and could be “strengthened by including a much stronger reference to the primary need to protect children”, he said. There was also a “little thought” about the importance of communicating with a family member. DfE guidance says schools should notify parents when illegal substances are detected, but “there is no legal requirement to do so”. But the committee said it was in danger of “schools doing nothing” and the guidance was “light on including parental consent as an important issue”. “In the case of Child Q, she was the one who had to tell her mother that she had been investigated by the school and that she had been investigated by the police. “In the opinion of the review, this ‘legally permissible practice’ is not a good practice,” he said.