Lord Ouseley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ouseley on 2016-03-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take to improve the arrest and prosecution rates for racist attacks, abuse and graffiti on London’s rail network, in the light of the 650 incidents reported since 2013, resulting in only 13 arrests.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government considers the safety of people using the rail network to be of paramount importance. The British Transport Police (BTP) treats racially motivated hate crimes very seriously and a daily review takes place of every hate crime from the previous 24 hours. In line with the College of Policing’s National Hate Crime Strategy, BTP is working with partners to reduce hate crime and every crime is investigated in accordance with the College of Policing Guidance for the investigation of hate crime.
In addition, the London Transport Community Safety Partnership (LTCSP), which brings together Transport for London (TfL), the police and other key stakeholders, is looking at this important issue at a strategic level to ensure a coordinated response. Both the BTP and the Metropolitan Police have stepped up operational activity to provide a visible, engaging, reassuring presence across the TfL network. TfL is also working with community organisations to engage with them on this issue and encourage reporting. TfL provides full support to the police for their investigations, through staff reporting and access to CCTV and oyster card data, to help bring any offenders to justice.
