The British Transport Police is providing up to 10% fewer officers than Transport for London is paying it for, according to figures released under Freedom of Information laws.
Last year Mayor Sadiq Khan confirmed that TfL pays the force to provide 977 Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers, including 100 officers specifically earmarked for patrolling the Night Tube.
According to Mr Khan, the funding agreement covers 817 officers for the Tube, 86 assigned to London Overground and TfL Rail services, 4 officers for the Croydon Tramlink, 12 for a “London Bridge Hub Team” and 58 officers for “suburban rail Neighbourhood Policing Teams”.
However it’s been suggested to this site that the force is routinely failing to hit those numbers and that officers who should be working in pairs are often assigned to single officer patrols.
Last month this site asked the force to confirm the number of officers in post for each reporting period over the past 2 years, including those assigned to the Night Tube, and for the number of full time equivalent (FTE) positions which have been left unfilled.
The force has claimed widespread exemption from providing most of the requested information, citing national security, the threat of terrorism and potential misuse of the figures by criminals operating on the TfL network.
Its stance contrasts sharply with other forces, including the Metropolitan Police, which routinely publish their officer strength both at force wide and local level.
BTP has also refused to confirm that the extra Night Tube officers TfL is paying for are being provided and claimed not to be providing the Mayor’s transport agency with “any formal reports…in respect of officer numbers on the Night Tube.”
That claim raises potentially serious questions about how TfL is monitoring BTP’s use of the £74m annual fee it pays to the force.
Despite applying its widespread exemption, the force did confirm the number of vacant full-time equivalent positions in recent months:
|
Reporting Period |
FTE of Positions Vacant |
|
2016 – 17 P2 |
26 |
|
2016 – 17 P3 |
31 |
|
2016 – 17 P4 |
48 |
|
2016 – 17 P5 |
52 |
|
2016 – 17 P6 |
48 |
|
2016 – 17 P7 |
48 |
|
2016 – 17 P8 |
39 |
|
2016 – 17 P9 |
35 |
|
2016 – 17 P10 |
34 |
|
2016 – 17 P11 |
43 |
|
2016 – 17 P12 |
45 |
|
2016 – 17 P13 |
28 |
|
2017 – 18 P2 |
115 |
In the most recent period the number of vacant FTE posts was 115, more than 10% of the officers BTP is paid to provide.
In its FOI response, BTP claimed that “positions may be vacant for a number of reasons, including officers seconded to other roles, and may be balanced out by overestablishment in other roles or areas”
It insisted that “the fact that a position is shown as vacant does not necessarily indicate a shortfall in officers merely that a substantive position was not shown as filled at that point in time and claimed the growth in vacant positions was due to “an ongoing demand review project which has led to some redistribution of posts.”
Commenting on the BTP’s FOI response, Conservative London Assembly member Steve O’Connell said: “I’m staggered to learn that no-one in the Mayor’s office has even bothered to check how many officers Londoners receive for the substantial amount of taxpayers money that is handed over to the BTP.
“Clearly if fewer officers than expected are delivered then questions should be asked about what is happening to the money.
“These figures deserve further scrutiny and investigation from the Mayor to make sure Londoners are not being ripped off.”
Labour’s London Assembly Policing Spokesperson, Unmesh Desai AM, said: “This is a straight forward issue of accountability.
“I’m shocked and appalled by the lack of transparency by the BTP, how are we supposed to know that we’re getting what we’re paying for?
“With that number of vacancies there’s a real chance Londoners’ money isn’t going on the officers we need. I have written to the BTP to ask them to supply these numbers and I’d encourage the Mayor to take it up with them.”
Following the escalating political row, BTP’s press office issued the following statement on Wednesday morning: “British Transport Police (BTP) and Transport for London (TfL) agree an establishment of officers, PCSOs and police staff that is funded by TfL and are part of the establishment for policing London and the South East.
“TfL only pay for the officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and staff that are actually employed and are not charged for any vacancies.
“There are currently 1383 police officers, 181 PCSOs and 240 police staff, together with 156 Special Constables who provide a police service for the transport network across the whole of London and the South East, including the London Transport underground system and other TfL rail and light railway systems.
“In addition a further 437 police officers who are centrally based, provide various specialist support functions. TfL only pay for an agreed proportion of these costs.
“With the introduction of Night Tube BTP agreed with TfL to deploy 100 officers per Night Tube shift. TfL already paid for 42 of these officers and agreed to fund a further 58 to make a total of 100 officers per Night Time shift.”
Despite providing this site with the number of officers covering the whole South East, the force continues to withhold the data originally requested, including how many of the 977 TfL network officers were in post for each reporting period over the past two years and has yet to confirm that the 100 Night Tube officers are all in post.
