Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for the merger of the Scottish Division of British Transport Police with Police Scotland.

The two Governments have established an official level Joint Programme Board (JPB) to oversee arrangements for delivering the transfer of the British Transport Police’s functions in Scotland. Membership of the Board includes representatives from both Governments, the two Police Authorities and the two Police Forces.

The UK Government’s ambition is to see a smooth transition to the new arrangements for policing the railways, with the focus on ensuring the continued effective policing of the railways once responsibilities are split between the British Transport Police and Police Scotland, including appropriate coordination arrangements.

Whilst significant progress has been made on a number of aspects of integration, including preparing the secondary legislation which will transfer those BTP officers and staff currently responsible for policing the railways in Scotland to Police Scotland, a number of significant operational issues remain to be resolved. For this reason the Scottish Government announced in February that the planned 1 April 2019 transfer date would not be achieved. A detailed re-planning exercise is now underway to ensure robust delivery plans are in place for all of the key elements of the programme and to establish a new delivery date.