Power to stop and search persons
22.—(1) If a constable or a designated customs official has reasonable grounds to suspect that any person is committing or has committed an offence under this Order, the constable or designated customs official may, without warrant—
(a)stop and detain that person for the purpose of a search;
(b)search that person if the constable or designated customs official suspects with reasonable cause that evidence of the commission of the offence is to be found on that person; or
(c)search or examine anything which that person may be using or which is in that person’s possession if the constable or designated customs official suspects with reasonable cause that evidence of the commission of the offence is to be found on it.
(2) Nothing in this article authorises a strip search or an intimate search.
(3) A rub-down search shall not be carried out except by a person of the same sex as the person being searched.
(4) The powers conferred by this article may be exercised in any place to which the constable or designated customs official has access (whether or not it is a place to which the public has access).
(5) In this article, “intimate search”, “rub-down search” and “strip search” have the same meanings as in section 164(5) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (power to search persons)(1).
1979 c. 2. Section 164(5) was inserted by section 10(3) of the Finance Act 1988 (c. 39).