Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by British Transport Police

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  On 13 January, the Transport Committee announced its intention to include consideration of the British Transport Police (BTP) in its present inquiry into UK Transport Security. This Memorandum is intended to supplement the original Memorandum submitted to the Transport Committee which addressed the specific role of BTP in combating terrorism on the railways.

  BTP has been the subject of four recent Government reviews, all of which concluded that a national specialist police force for the railways is essential if the railway industry and the travelling public are to receive a responsive and focused policing service.

  BTP is providing an effective policing service. Last year it achieved nine out of nine of its operational objectives, and as of January, BTP is currently achieving 11 out of 11 operational targets. BTP's specialisation provides consistency of focus, standardisation of priorities and clarity of accountability. The railway network is best served by a separate, specialised police force.

BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE

  BTP is the national police force for the railways providing a policing service to rail operators, their staff and passengers throughout England, Wales and Scotland. BTP is also responsible for policing the London Underground system, the Docklands Light Railway, the Midland Metro Tram System and Croydon Tramlink. Between them, these rail businesses move over five million people every day. It is likely that the railway community will continue to grow. As Transport 2000 commented in 2005:

    "Passenger journeys on Britain's railways last year exceeded one billion, the highest since 1959, and train operators estimate that demand for rail travel will grow by 66% over the next 20 years. But parts of the network are already bursting at the seams and desperately need expanding. Other parts of the network will soon reach capacity as demand for rail use continues to rise. "

  Britain's railways connect communities and are vital arteries that feed the economic and social well-being of the nation. The security of the rail system is a key component in its success and BTP's role is to ensure efficient policing of the system. As the national police force for the railways, BTP provides an end-to-end policing service which responds to the specialist needs of the railway industry, the travelling public and the wider railway community. This is especially important for those who are unfortunate enough to become victims of crime on the railway network. The crime may occur at one end of the country and be reported at the other, but as a national organisation, BTP is able to deal with it seamlessly.

  The need for a specialist national police service for the railways has been supported by successive government reviews and white papers. In the foreword to the consultation paper "Modernising the British Transport Police" (2001), the then Minister for Transport, Mr John Spellar stated:

    "The BTP's operations are fully integrated with Home Office Police Forces and they provide policing services to exactly the same high professional standard. In addition to providing specialist policing for the railway environment, they have developed particular expertise in . . . protection for terrorism, management of large travelling groups such as football supporters and control of anti-social behaviour in enclosed areas."

  In the response to this consultation, the Department for Transport (DfT) stated:

    "The Government therefore considers that the national railway network is best protected by a unified police force providing a dedicated, specialist service and able to give proper priority to the policing of the railways."

  In 2004, the Transport Select Committee concluded:

    "The railways are a specialised environment, with specialised needs and need a specialised Force . . . Unless there is a national force dedicated to policing the rail network, the task will not be given the priority it needs."

  The White Paper "The Future of Rail"" published by the DfT in 2004, stated:

    "The industry and passengers also receive significant benefits from a dedicated force, particularly from its approach to managing incidents, which is aimed at minimising delay. The Government confirms its support for the BTP continuing in its role as a specialist rail police force."

  Transport is considered by Government to be part of the Critical National Infrastructure; systems whose importance is such that any entire or partial loss or compromise could cause large scale loss of life, have a serious impact on the national economy, have grave social consequences for the community and be of immediate concern to the national government. BTP's experience and expertise ensures that the risk of damage to the railway network is as small as it possibly could be.

  BTP last year achieved nine out of nine operational targets and, with the formation of the British Transport Police Authority, was awarded a 25% budget increase to build on this success and further improve its policing services and capability. As already stated, BTP is currently achieving 11 out of 11 operational targets and this is a major achievement, given the extra demands of counter-terrorist work following the bombings. It illustrates that BTP has managed to retain a counter-terrorist focus while continuing efforts on force objectives.

THE NEED FOR A SPECIALIST POLICE FORCE

  The national railway network consists of 10,000 miles of track, 3,000 stations and depots, 400,000 tonnes of freight carried a day, a travelling population of over 5.5 million a day plus over 130,000 rail staff. It includes national rail services of an inter-city, cross-country, suburban and rural nature as well as London Underground, light rail (trams) and a growing international rail operation. The network spans three countries and two legal systems.

  The south east of England provides an integrated mass transit system that sees passengers travel long distances, often changing between several transport modes and crossing many unitary, borough and police force boundaries. London is a particular example where a dedicated transport police force provides a cohesive approach to community safety across a range of systems, over and underground, trams and light rail systems. The national responsibilities of BTP ensure that the policing of the London termini and underground systems (transport hubs) is fully integrated with the systems that feed into and out of the capital—eg inter-city and suburban routes.

  The railway "community" contains all the diverse groups of any other community in the UK, but with the added input of a specific railway operator's community, rail staff, tenants and contractors and rail passengers. Local communities are affected by the presence of stations and trains in their midst with transport hubs often featuring as "hot spots" for crime and anti-social behaviour.

  In addition, the millions of passengers per day form another, transient community, most of whom live nowhere near the stations themselves. They are arguably less affected by issues of community safety around stations than they are crime and anti-social behaviour that occurs on trains during journeys. The railway itself attracts specific types of offending that are peculiar to its infrastructure. Offences such as trespass, vandalism and obstruction are dangerous to those who perpetrate them, but have a major safety impact with potential network wide implications to safety and disruption.

  Specialisation provides consistency of focus, standardisation of priorities and clarity of accountability. These are particularly significant when addressing issues with network wide implications—whether that be in relation to the effect of the issue or the approach required to counter it.

  Good examples of this can be found in relation to offences known as "route crime" (trespass, vandalism, obstruction of trains, stone throwing). An effective response requires partnership amongst organisations to develop a range of measures that can be applied across normal administrative boundaries.

  In other examples, the specialist policing service brings with it attitudes that are borne from a highly developed awareness of the business impact of policing response and the need to return to normality as quickly as possible and avoid disruption.

  BTP's management of fatalities on the railway is a model of collective working to the good of the operators and travelling public alike. BTP has a specific target for dealing with fatalities—it is extremely unlikely that a Home Office force without specialist responsibility for the railway would have.

  The transport infrastructure has for many years been an attractive target to terrorists with numerous incidents of terrorist attack. The impact of unattended items and telephone bomb threats on the transport network is huge, both from the perspective of inconvenience to passengers and the real economic damage caused by repeated closure of the railways due to threats.

  BTP's approach to effective evaluation of risk by has kept disruption to an absolute minimum in times of high levels in terrorist activity. The consistency provided by a specialist policing focus ensures a national rather than single incident approach to such incidents.

  Transient crime and travelling criminals pose significant challenges to policing based on a geographical basis. It is unlikely that police forces—even a "strategic force" would be willing or able to deploy officers to trains that travel many miles, transcending force boundaries. Logistically it would be unattractive and difficult; financially it would be difficult to align with police authority budgets and the precept mechanisms for charging to local council taxpayers.

  In this regard, the policing of travelling football supporters or attendees at major sporting or entertainment events would present identical dilemmas. Once, football was a two-day per week commitment. The influence of satellite TV sponsorship on football has developed this aspect of policing into a seven-day a week commitment.

  The rail network is largely a "contained" environment. It is affected by a wide range of offences, but particularly by high volume, low level disorder and anti-social behaviour—often committed on trains. Home Office forces would find it difficult to provide the dedicated focus that is currently devoted towards this type of offending that is so important to engender confidence and reduce the fear of crime in the travelling public and rail staff.

  A number of studies have identified the difficulty in addressing these issues and the impact of this on society, no least in respect of social exclusion.

    "Developing a crime prevention strategy is difficult for local authorities and CDRPs because public transport crosses administrative boundaries"[1]

  The various systems are rich in CCTV coverage, much of which is provided by individual operators. A dedicated focus is necessary to seek to harmonise the crime reduction approach of the disparate railway operating groups.

FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS

  The London Assembly Transport Committee's report Crime and Safety at London's Suburban Railway Stations published on 30 January 2006 highlighted the difference between BTP resources in the London Underground Area compared to London North and London South:

    "The Committee were also concerned about the numbers of police the BTP are able to dedicate to policing London's rail network. London Underground funds allow for the BTP to provide 662 officers on its network. The London North area on the railways has 215 officers allocated; the London South area a further 212 officers."

  The current funding arrangement for the BTP is that the "User Pays". The long-standing view of the Government is that the BTP is a specialist force for the railways and therefore the costs should be borne by the industry it serves. As a result contributions to the funding of BTP's overground rail policing is split between the Train Operating Companies, Network Rail and the Freight Operating Companies.

  The current BTP Authority inherited a situation where BTP's overground policing resources had been chronically under-funded. Between 2002-04, BTP received budget settlements which in real terms equated to -3%, -2% and -3% year on year. In contrast, Home Office police forces saw sustained growth with increases in police grant of 7.3% (2002), 6.2% (2003) and 3.25% (2004). Additionally, substantial sums were available for Home Office forces through increases in the precept charges to council tax payers.

  This situation led to the HMIC commenting in its inspection of BTP in 2003-04 that its infrastructure was "groaning" and that:

    "The consequence (of insufficient funding) has been that solutions to key questions have been delayed and the Force is left with an infrastructure that is impoverished and inadequate . . . The force infrastructure requires most urgent attention . . . Time is running out to put these things right."

  Therefore, the substantial increase in BTP's budget for 2005-06 was largely used to address this history of under-funding and to improve BTP's infrastructure in areas such as IT and Human Resources, address legal requirements and ensure business continuity.

  In contrast, TfL, who pay for BTP costs directly attributed to the policing of the Underground, have recognised the benefits of investing in BTP and have benefited substantially. Officers on the Underground have increased by 50% (200 officers) over the last two years. TfL have also recently announced that they will fund an extra 89 officers at both overground and underground stations. The funding, from the 2006-07 budget, will provide officer teams concentrated on robbery and violent crime hotspots at overground stations along the Bakerloo line from Queens Park to the end of the line, other north London Silverlink services, and south London overground rail stations.

  This significant investment in extra policing by TfL has allowed BTP to roll out a new type of policing right across the Underground. Small groups of officers are now dedicated to each of the 43 groups of stations on the Underground network. A similar localised structure has been introduced for the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). These local officers are responsible for problem solving within their group of stations, working in partnership with Underground and DLR managers, staff, passengers and the local community to identify and tackle local issues.

  This reassurance policing programme is delivering local policing for local communities and BTP is already seeing the impact, with more and better reporting of crime and incidents due to greater confidence that something will be done about it. For London Underground staff in particular these reassurance policing groups will provide a better and more responsive service and, as a consequence, much better relationships. This is essential if, together, BTP and London Underground are to achieve the best for both those who travel and those who work on the transport system.

POLICE RESTRUCTURING

  As members will be aware, the Secretary of State for Transport has announced a review of BTP to run alongside the Home Office review of police forces. BTP strongly believes that the railway environment would not continue to be given the priority treatment it currently receives if BTP is merged with one or more Home Office forces. This is evidenced by the experience of New York. In the 1990s, crime in the New York subway rose immediately after the merger between the transit police and the NYPD. While it was later brought under control, in a four month period in mid-1997 thefts rose by 79%, assaults by 44% and robberies by 38% on the previous year. Crime is still prevalent today: a separate transit police is being considered for mainline railway stations.

  The document "Police restructuring and the British Transport Police" attached as an Appendix to this submission fully outlines BTP's position with regard to the police service review.

7 February 2006





1   "Getting There: Reducing crime on Public Transport" September 2003 NACRO. Back


 
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