Clause 38 - Regulations: approval in draft
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
11:00 am
Mr David Jamieson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Plymouth, Devonport, Labour)
The previous clauses would provide the authority with the powers to make regulations for the administration of the British Transport police. Those regulations must be modelled on the equivalent regulations that have been made by the Secretary of State in respect of the Home Office police forces. The regulations will govern how the British Transport police operate internally. It is, therefore, essential that the chief constable, the British Transport police's staff associations, the British Transport police federation, the Police Superintendents Association and the Association of Chief Police Officers be consulted during the drafting process. The difference is that the setting up and role of the federation have been defined in the Bill. However, members can still join other associations if they are of the appropriate rank.
The regulations will require the Secretary of State's prior approval. In most cases we would expect the authority, the chief constable and the staff associations to reach agreement on the regulations. However, if there is a dispute between them, the Secretary of State will be able to allow the authority to dispense with the need to obtain the agreement of the chief constable and of the staff associations. Before he does that the
Secretary of State would consult the chief constable and the staff associations to ensure that they were both aware of the proposals. He would allow them to present their cases. We do not expect that facility to be used frequently, but it would be needed to unblock the process if a dispute arose.
The hon. Member for Vale of York asked why the regulations in clause 38(2) should not be approved by someone from the industry. The industry is a member of the authority—it will have four members—and that body will bring forward the regulations. It would be curious if we went round in a circle and consulted the same people again. It would be inappropriate for the train-operating companies to be able to give any consent to the regulations, because those relate only to the police constables, to their rank, promotion, retirement and other arrangements. As they already have members on the authority, no purpose would be served by their having to give approval under this part.