Tuesday, 3 March 2026

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:02): My constituency matter is for the Minister for Police. On the weekend a member of the public alerted me to the fact that there was some vandalism occurring in real time at Blackburn station. It was significant vandalism that will take a lot of money to fix and clean up. The citizen went and checked whether there was a PSO at Blackburn station to intervene or to prevent or apprehend the person performing the vandalism, and there was no-one there. The question was raised with me: where were the PSOs? Are PSOs no longer stationed at Blackburn station, and what should the community expectation be? I would ask the minister to please clarify for my community: what is the official status of PSOs at Blackburn station, and when should they be on duty? When is it expected that they be on duty?