Clause 26 - Civilian employees
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
4:00 pm
Mr John Spellar (Minister of State (Transport), Department for Transport; Warley, Labour)
The hon. Lady will not be surprised to learn that the number has been going up. That is absolutely right, because the British Transport police, like other police forces, need to consider what work requires the powers of a constable, and which roles, undertaken by police officers, do not require the extensive police training and discipline. We must tackle that, and one way to do so is to consider the rationalisation of the forms that need to be filled in and the processing that needs to be undertaken with regard to action being taken against criminals. I fully accept that that must be done.
I hope that Opposition Members will be supportive when the Government try to slim down such procedures, and will not bog us down in arguments regarding procedural issues that are frankly of interest only to criminals and lawyers. There are many tasks that could appropriately be undertaken by civilians and that should not tie up properly trained officers, who should be out on the front line protecting our citizens and the structure and network of the rail system.