Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost of the Airwave replacement programme for the British Transport Police; and what additional funding his Department will provide to the British Transport Police to complete that programme.
The current estimated total life cycle costs up to 2026/27 for the implementation and transition to the new Emergency Service Network, which will replace Airwave, is currently £78.6m. Many of the costs have been estimated on the basis of information supplied by the Home Office programme that is delivering the Emergency Services Network. The costs of implementing the Airwave replacement programme are a cost of policing the railway, to be met from the policing charges levied on rail operators for the provision of policing services.