Clause 19 - Establishment of Police Force
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
3:45 pm
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
The amendment is purely for the purposes of clarification. We have just had a brief, but helpful discussion and the Minister has made some useful comments about the relationship between the British Transport police and the British police force generally. Certain clauses relate to amendments Nos. 54, 56 and 57. Whenever the police force is referred to in the Bill, it would be much better to distinguish it by using its full name and to refer to it as the British Transport police force. That is why the amendments seek to delete line 36. I am sure that it is referred to as ''the Police Force'' purely as a shorthand reference, but I believe that it could be confusing if the force and other forces are referred to in the context of other legislation. We therefore suggest that, throughout, the Bill should refer to the British Transport police force in order clearly to distinguish it from its local counterparts.