Traffic marshals in Parliament costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds a year are needed after “eight reported near misses,” claim the authorities.
But peers challenged the employment of the marshals and whether they are really needed or if instead their deployment is down to over-zealous health and safety moves.
Former armed forces minister Lord Robathan said he had been told that the team of marshals, believed to be nine-strong, along Parliament’s spine road and elsewhere, was costing around “two-thirds of £1 million a year” or even more.
He stressed to fellow peers: “Many of us in this Chamber have been using the back road from Speaker’s Court to Royal Court for 30 years. I have never encountered any danger on bicycle, on foot or in a car.
“What exactly did the risk assessment find that was suddenly making it more dangerous?
“I still use that road by bicycle, foot and car and have not encountered any danger at all, except some poor man in an orange suit looking bored and rather getting in the way.”
The debate was raised by fellow Tory peer Lord Hayward who has been pressing the parliamentary authorities about the marshals, who are personally paid £13 an hour, but apparently at a cost for each one of them of more than £65,000-a-year, paid to a contractor.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble, the Senior Deputy Speaker, explained that the Parliamentary Safety Assurance Board and the Logistics Steering Group, which include officials of both Houses, gave approval to this “additional mitigation” of marshals as work is done on the parliamentary estate.
He stressed: “This is in the context of speed bumps, zebra crossings, traffic calming signs and, wherever possible, traffic/pedestrian segregation. I should also say, perhaps for some sceptics, that in the last year there were eight reported near misses, which I think we should all be very aware of, on a busy parliamentary estate with not only us as members but members of staff and visitors.”
The parliamentary authorities listed the eight “near misses” in 2023 as:
- 20 February: Damage to hoarding by vehicle driving through Peers Inner Court.
- 10 April: Risk identified and reported of pedestrians using same ramp into the Underground Car Park as vehicles, intervention of traffic marshal identified as required.
- 01 August: Vehicular contact archway stonework between Speaker’s Court and New Palace Yard.
- 09 August: Reversing vehicle damaged fence panel in New Palace Yard.
- 09 September: Vehicle and security apparatus came in to contact.
- 16 October: Near miss collision between vehicles and pedestrians.
- 14 November: Vehicles came head-to-head at Carriage Gates exit, risk of collision.
- 14 December: Vehicle and security apparatus came into contact, damaging vehicle.
They added that there had been a further incident on January 18 which was a “near miss collision between a vehicle and pedestrians”.
But Lord Hayward told The Standard: “It depresses me that this sum of money is spent and these minor incidents are used as justification and appear to be mainly down to bad driving.”
He also questioned whether “security apparatus” meant a plastic bollard which a vehicle had driven into.
Lord Gardiner said that safety on the parliamentary estate was a matter for the Clerk of the Parliaments and the Clerk of the House, who delegate responsibility for the traffic management system to Strategic Estates, a bicameral team.
“Regular reviews have taken place since the one-way system was implemented, and marshal numbers have been reduced where possible,” he added.
“The most recent review took place last month. Costs were considered each time, along with the need for safety, particularly while construction is being undertaken on a working estate.”
Parliament is due to undergo a major restoration and has ongoing pest control problems.
