The Act Schedule 13: Abolition of Royal Parks Constabulary: Supplementary
420.Part 1 provides for the establishment of eligibility for transfer of park constables to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) by regulation and a power to terminate Crown employment.
421.Part 1 also provides for the Secretary of State to make schemes to transfer constables, property, rights and liabilities from the RPC to the MPA. The Schedule sets out the provisions which a transfer scheme may include. In particular, it may provide for RPC constables who wish and are eligible to do so, to become attested as Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) constables. Alternatively, the scheme may provide for them to transfer to employment by the MPA as CSOs or police staff, if they are eligible and wish to do so. The scheme may provide for the continuity of employment of transferred constables and for periods of service as a RPC constable to count towards benefits available as an MPS constable which are dependent of length of service.
422.Part 2 makes amendments to primary legislation. Most amendments are consequential on the abolition of the RPC. However, paragraph 13 amends the Police Reform Act 2002, firstly so as to add breaches of park regulations to the list of “relevant offences” in relation to which CSOs have limited powers of detention as set out in paragraph 2 of Schedule 4 to that Act, and secondly in order to provide CSOs with power to take temporary possession of items which they suspect have been used in the commission of a park trading offence.