Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent meetings Ministers of his Department have had with (a) representatives of British Transport Police and (b) the Home office on the British Transport Police; and what the outcome was of those meetings.

There were conference telephone calls on Monday 4^th May and Wednesday 6^th May, between the Rail Minister, Chris Heaton-Harris MP and Paul Crowther, the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police. No other Ministers have met with BTP representatives recently. There was also a phone conference between the Rail Minister and the Chair and Chief Executive of the British Transport Police Authority (BTPA) on Thursday 7th May.

There have not been any recent ministerial meetings with the Home Office regarding BTP.

Outcomes

At the 4th May meeting, the Minister and the Chief Constable agreed that BTP and the Department would continue to work closely together to manage the impacts of COVID-19 on the rail network. During the discussion on the 6th May, the Chief Constable was able to give an update on BTP’s activities and the Minister did likewise regarding work within the Department.

During the discussion between the Rail Minister and BTPA, the BTPA representatives provided an update on the Authority’s work in supporting BTP activity and agreed to keep the Minister updated regarding future developments.