Railways: Suicides Debate

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Department: Home Office

Railways: Suicides

Baroness Randerson Excerpts
Monday 21st December 2015

(8 years, 11 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Baroness Randerson Portrait Baroness Randerson (LD)
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My Lords, the role of the British Transport Police is crucial in dealing with these very sad events, and there are other events that cause disruption to the railway that the British Transport Police is also very closely concerned with. I was therefore very sad to read last week stories about potential cuts to the British Transport Police budget next year. Are those stories true? Will funding to British Transport Police be cut next year? If so, by how much?

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon Portrait Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
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We work very closely across the board with the British Transport Police on this issue. The noble Baroness may well be aware that initiatives are being taken—right here in the capital, for example—to increase police patrolling to ensure that we minimise not just suicide prevention, as she points out, but also hate crime that takes place on our networks. We seek to minimise that and we work together with the police on ensuring this.