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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