MPs plan inquiry after school stabbing death

MPs are planning a wide-ranging inquiry into school security after the fatal stabbing last week of Luke Walmsley, 14, at a school in Lincolnshire.

Barry Sheerman, the Labour chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Education, will propose the move at a meeting of his committee today.

The inquiry should cover not only the issues of knives being taken into school but violence against teachers and violence by intruders on school premises as well, he said.

"There is no doubt we live in an age where acts of violence in school are more commonplace. I recently had a case of a teacher being beaten in the grounds of a school in my constituency."

The inquiry would be the first by MPs since the mid-1980s when an independent inquiry by Lord Elton warned that violent incidents in schools were increasing.