School governors will breathe a sigh of relief following a court decision involving a school pupil who was excluded from school after threatening a teacher with a knife. The pupil lost his appeal that his exclusion was a breach of his human rights because he did not have access to a fair trial. However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Human Rights Act was not engaged in such cases.
Although the exclusion arose as the result of his alleged commission of a criminal offence, the exclusion proceedings were not ‘criminal proceedings.’ The youth did not face the possibility of a fine, imprisonment or other criminal sanction.