Vince Cable

Vincent Cable, MP, questioned Transport Secretary Alistair Darling this week about the absence of proper funding arrangements for the Transport Police, which results, according to Vincent Cable, in a "serious lack of police on the railways to deal with serious problems of criminal damage and anti-social behaviour at local stations".

The Transport Police are financed not, directly, by the taxpayer but by the rail companies some of whom do not meet their commitments and who generally keep the Transport Police less amply financed than the civilian police.

Vincent Cable said: "The Transport Police play a crucial role as a specialised force to counter terrorism on the railways and the underground but they are seriously overstretched. It is difficult to get any kind of priority attention for problems like the gangs who operate through Hampton Wick or the graffiti, which is far worse on the railways than anywhere else. If they take on community support officers this has to be funded out of their front line police budget. The Transport Police are one of the oddities of the policing system and as long as they are funded in such an unsatisfactory way, the service will be erratic.