Clause 49 - Railways policing plan
Railways and Transport Safety Bill
9:45 am
Mrs Anne McIntosh (Vale of York, Conservative)
Logging on to the website is a mind-blowing experience that I thoroughly recommend to all members of the Committee. It will enable them to follow the proceedings of the Committee and our consideration of the Bill. The summary of replies to the consultation paper and the Government response were published in September 2002. I understand from speaking to those who responded from the industry and the police force that they assumed that the paper and the response would be available on the web. However, they are not. It is good that they are in the Library but, as I said, there are probably not enough copies to go round, whereas one merely has to click on the web. I make a plea to the Government to make them more widely available.
Bearing in mind that the response to the consultation and the Government's reply to those responses was published some considerable time ago, the Government had sufficient time before publishing the Bill to consider what form the consultation with the local partnerships would take. I want to record my disappointment that they have not done so, and my disappointment at the Under-Secretary's weak response this morning, which I must say is out of character for him. He also seems not to have taken on board the real concerns of disabled groups such as the RNIB.
The Bill introduces a radical new power that, for the first time, gives inspectors the right to enter people's property even without a warrant in their hand. The inspectors are empowered to enter someone's house shortly after an accident. I would have thought it incumbent on the Government to prepare the ground by encouraging the local British Transport police to develop a good working relationship with those living near stations and the track. I am sure that we will return to this matter at the first available opportunity.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 49 ordered to stand part of the Bill.