The House of Lords is to remove a controversial team of ‘traffic marshals’ regularly patrolling Parliament’s internal roads to prevent politicians from being run over by cars doing just 5mph, after spending more than £5m on them.
The safety officials have been placed at key points within the Westminster estate on safety grounds since 2019 while renovation works have been carried out.
But questions have been raised over the exorbitant cost of having them in place and whether they were even necessary, given the snail-like maximum speed limit in the tight internal roadways.
Figures revealed under a freedom of information request suggest the cost of having them cover alleged trouble spots on the eight-acre site has passed £5million in total.
And a report in 2024 revealed that the previous year every marshal was costing taxpayers £93,000 – though they were being paid little more than the minimum wage.
Now a House of Lords report, marked ‘restricted’ but seen by the Mail, says that with much of the work now done they will be removed from regular duty and only retained for dealing with ‘specific, time-limited safety risks’.
They will be replaced by ‘pedestrian barriers’, speed humps and signs that are now now deemed enough to maintain the safety of elected officials and their aides.
Tory peer Lord Hayward, who has criticised the cost of the programme for years, said: ‘I’m pleased that at last we are to see the removal of most of the traffic marshals which have cost the taxpayer an unnecessary £2million over last three years.
‘At last we have seen some sense. But it is a classic case of hiding the decision by classifying the paper announcing it as ”restricted”, which was totally unjustified.’
Figures revealed under a freedom of information request suggest the cost of having them cover alleged trouble spots on the eight-acre site has passed £5million in total.
Tory peer Lord Hayward, who has criticised the cost of the programme for years, said: ‘I’m pleased that at last we are to see the removal of most of the traffic marshals which have cost the taxpayer an unnecessary £2m over last three years.’
An FOI request in March last year found that £4.3million had been spent on the programme, with additional costs since taking it past £5million.
The House of Lords did not dispute the cost of the programme but said it would continue to use the marshals for ‘specific major projects’.
A spokesman said: ‘The safety of all users of and visitors to the Parliamentary Estate is vitally important. In order to ensure this during a period of heavy vehicle movements transiting the Palace of Westminster, we have for some years used traffic marshals at a number of key locations across the estate.
‘As some major projects have now concluded, we are now looking to use other proportionate and cost-effective safety measures instead.’
Questions have long been raised about the amount of money being spent on the marshals employed during the ongoing programme to restore the crumbling facade of the Palace of Westminster.
In a House of Lords finance committee meeting in 2024 it was revealed that the set up, employing just nine marshals, cost £700,000 in 2023 – plus £140,000 VAT at 20 per cent for a total of £840,000. This equated to £93,000 per marshal.
But peers questioned the cost, with Baroness Brinton telling the Lords at the time that every marshal she spoke to ‘has been on the (then) minimum wage of £10.42 an hour, and they have to pay for their own training and their own DBS badges in most instances’.