Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday approved a draft law that would prevent civil servants, judges and soldiers from wearing Islamic full-face veils at work.

Germany's ruling coalition said in a statement said that a "religious or ideological covering of the face contradicts the neutrality required of state functionaries."

The law would also require women to show their face during identity checks.

The law still has to be approved by the upper house, the Bundesrat, before coming into effect.

"Integration also means that we should make clear and impart our values and where the boundaries lie of our tolerance towards other cultures," German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. "The draft law we have agreed on makes an important contribution to that."

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Fifth country to ban

If the law is passed, Germany would become the fifth European country to ban or partially ban the wearing of the burqa and niqab, after France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Bulgaria.

Austria and Norway are also working towards a ban.

The approval came after Chancellor Angela Merkel's December call for a ban on full-face Muslim veils "wherever legally possible". The new law fell short of demands by right-wing parties for a total ban in public places, as in France.

Merkel is facing a federal election in five months, with her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) losing some support to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD).

In February, Merkel's Bavarian CSU sister party said it would ban the full-face veil in schools, universities, government workplaces and polling stations.

Package of security measures

During the same late night session, the Bundestag approved a package of security measures aimed at preventing extremist attacks.

New security measures includes the court-approved use of electronic ankle bracelets for people deemed a security threat. Another law is aimed at helping national and state police forces pool their data in a new integrated IT system.

A separate measure implemented European Union rules on the mandatory sharing and retention of data on flight passengers.

Another measure meant physical attacks on police, emergency services and military personnel on duty would be punished with up to five years' jail.</s>German lawmakers have approved a burka ban for public sector workers as part of a package of measures designed to stop extremist attacks.

The Bundestag parliament voted through the law, which demands that the appearance of anybody who works for the government be “religiously neutral”.

The legislation follows several Islamic terrorist attacks, including one in December where a jihadist used a truck to ram through a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people.

It also comes as Germany readies itself for national elections this September. The legislation must pass Germany’s upper legislative chamber before becoming law.

The ban will apply to civil servants including election authorities, the military and judicial staff while they are at work, the German DPA press agency reported.

It fell short of a total ban in public spaces as demanded by right-wing parties in Germany.

The text of the legislation said: “The state has a duty to present itself in an ideologically and religiously neutral manner.”

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the partial burka ban is about social integration of immigrants which requires “that we make clear and communicate our values and the limits of our tolerance to other cultures.”

The law prohibiting facial coverings allows certain exceptions – for instance, health workers protecting themselves against infections or police officers concealing their identity.

The law also gives powers to authorities to ask people to remove their facial coverings if they need to confirm their identity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called to ban the burka since December last year, following the pressure from her party. During her party’s conference she urged to ban burka or niqab wherever possible.

She said: “With us, the rule is: show your face, that’s why the full veil is not appropriate, it should be banned.”</s>More than 300 faults with Police Scotland’s body-worn cameras have been logged in the past three years.

The cameras were initially trialled in Aberdeen and then rolled out across Moray and Aberdeenshire in 2012.

Data obtained by BBC Scotland found that over a three-year period the number of faults reported with the system doubled.

Police Scotland told the broadcaster most problems had been with the force’s own computers, not the cameras themselves.

Officers have logged 302 faults in the force’s IT portal since 2013, according to information obtained by the BBC.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams told BBC Good Morning Scotland: “There’s been in the region of 300 faults reported, but to give you some context around that, let’s take Queen Street station alone in Aberdeen in the north-east.

“Body-worn cameras have been deployed there in excess of 200,000 times over the period of the trial so the numbers are a tiny tiny percentage of that, and I think what’s more important are the benefits that have come from the delivery of the body-worn videos in the north-east of Scotland.

“We’ve heard from the people of Aberdeen and how positive they are about it and we’ve heard from Chief Inspector Topping around the context of that and some of the benefits that have come from it, including officer safety, including a reduction in police officers having to go to court and perhaps most importantly as a result of that a reduction in the number of victims that have to attend at court to give evidence, which is really really important.”

He said that the force is currently consulting about what the future of policing in Scotland should look like in the next decade, which they are calling policing 2026.

If they were to consider the use of body-worn cameras for potential development they would take into account the lessons learned in the north-east, he said.

Mr Williams said the force has a “transformational budget” to change the organisation and move it forward, allowing them to consider the cost benefits of something like body-worn video.

Andrea MacDonald, chairwoman of the Scottish Police Federation, said they were concerned the force does not have the infrastructure to support the cameras.

She told the BBC: “What we’re concerned about is the cost in the current financial climate for the force which as you know is very dire and we’re also concerned that our IT infrastructure is creaking and worried that it would not be able to cope with body-worn cameras at the present time.

“I would hope it would be part of the wider 2026 programme to give time to take consideration of the public view of this and to look at what exactly we need to get the best cameras we need, and to make sure that our IT is fit for purpose and more importantly that the IT of our partners in the criminal justice system is fit for purpose, because it would be completely counter-productive if they didn’t have the IT to use the evidence that we present from the body-worn cameras.”
The Bundestag approves a ban on burqas being worn by members of the German civil service.