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Crime and Policing Bill

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan of Cotes. My proposed Amendment 356F is complementary, in a sense, to hers. My amendment would create a specific offence of assaulting a transport worker at work. It would be an equivalent protection to that given to retail workers by Clause 37 of the Bill, and there is of course existing legislation protecting emergency workers. I confess to a certain unease in proposing specific offences for specific groups of workers, but in the case of transport workers there are particular circumstances which justify an offence to protect them.

There has been a marked increase in violence against transport workers. Of course, the situation was highlighted by the multiple stabbings at Huntington on 1 November 2025. But violent offences against rail staff increased by 35% in 2024, according to the British Transport Police Authority. The overall increase in both incidents and the severity of violence against transport workers is to be noted. Of course, it is not just railway workers; transport workers protected would include those on the Underground, the Metro, trams, ferries and buses, and all other transport workers.

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The problem has been exacerbated by cuts to the funding of the British Transport Police, which faces a shortfall of £8.5 million for the year 2025-26 and has

been awarded just a 4.6% increase in funding, compared with the request that the force made for 9.8%. It is estimated that around 1,000 additional officers are required to restore protection to historic levels. Instead of that, some 500 posts are due to disappear by the end of the year 2025-26. The British Transport Police Authority figures suggest that police presence on the railway has dropped by one-third since the year 2009-10. A survey of 6,000 RMT members in transport reported in 2025 that nearly two-thirds had been assaulted in the past year.

There can be no doubt that the privatisation of rail and bus networks has led to cancellations, delays and overcrowding, which in turn have contributed to passenger anger, which has created an environment in which there is criminal behaviour by a very few. The Government are addressing those more fundamental issues, not least by the Great British Railways legislation, with regard to which, of course, I pay respect to the work of my noble kinsman. But I suggest that this amendment would be a useful adjunct to these measures and added protection to our hard-pressed transport workers, who showed heroic dedication to their duties during Covid.

I believe that the amendment or at least its purpose is supported by the British Transport Police, the Rail Delivery Group, Network Rail and Stagecoach, the bus operator, as well as the RMT, which asked me to draft it. I hope the Minister can find a place for the amendment or something like it in the Bill, or at least meet me and other supportive noble Lords and the RMT to discuss ways in which this specific problem may otherwise be addressed.