Clause 26 - Civilian employees
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
4:00 pm
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
When we were discussing clause 17, the Minister said that there were currently 644 support staff in the British Transport police. I presume that they are civilians. It would be interesting to know whether the level of civilian employees has been more or less static. Since 1997, when the Government came to power, there has been an emphasis on recruiting more civilian non-professionals to professions such as policing and teaching as classroom assistants and so on. In respect of the British Transport police, it would be helpful to know whether the figure has remained fairly static, and what the trend has been in, say, the past five years. Can the Minister tell us the projected number of civilian employees for the next five years?