Clause 24 - Special constables
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I should like to make two brief points. First, I place on record my praise for special constables who work in normal county police forces and for the British Transport police. Some county police forces have recently carried out extensive advertising campaigns in order to attract additional people to do that valuable work. Has the Minister thought about further advertising for BTP special constable posts, which, as the hon. Member for Vale of York has pointed out, cover a much wider area? Secondly, has the Minister given any thought to the working relationships between special constables, ordinary constables and a new category of person whom we may be seeing on our railways in the near future? I understand that various train-operating companies, which are responsible for running a number of our railway stations, are intending to appoint station wardens and there could be a problem if the working relationships have not been sorted out. I would be grateful for his comments on the issue.