Railway Stations: Sexual Offences
Question
Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with transport stakeholders on the adequacy of CCTV coverage in rail stations in (a) preventing and (b) prosecuting incidents of sexual offences.
Answer
Lilian GreenwoodEveryone should be able to use the rail transport without fearing for their safety. As part of the government’s Safer Streets mission we have a commitment to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG) by half over the next decade.
We recognise that police access to CCTV is vital to being able to identify offenders and bring them to justice, as well as to prevent crime, which is why my Department has recently announced nearly £17 million of funding to provide greater direct CCTV access from railway stations to British Transport Police (BTP).
The project, to be delivered by Network Rail in collaboration with the rail industry, will enable BTP officers to have more access to real-time footage from across the railway and help to identify sexual offenders as quickly as possible without having to request this from rail operators.