Protecting our staff from violence & aggression

Our staff serve millions of customers who use the transport network every day and have the right to go about their work without fear of being assaulted, abused, or threatened. They should never accept this as part of their jobs.

We're committed to preventing violence and aggression against our people, tackling the causes and providing the best support to our people who experience it.

Keeping our staff safe from violence and aggression

We encourage staff to report any instance of abuse whether physical, threat or verbal and gesture abuse so that we can use the data and analysis to drive forward preventative action. We work closely with our policing partners including the British Transport Police and the Metropolitan Police to catch and prosecute offenders to ensure there are consequences for their actions.

Work-related Violence and Aggression (WVA) team

We have a dedicated team working to prevent WVA and support those that do unfortunately experience it, including with one-to-one support and advice following an incident. Working closely with our policing partners, the team also provide investigation services including statement taking and evidence gathering and supports staff who have been victims of WVA through the judicial process, including at court.

Body Worn Video (BWV)

All our customer-facing TfL operational staff are required to wear BWV cameras when working in a customer-facing environment. BWV is a proven, effective preventative measure against staff assaults - a University of Cambridge trial shows that BWV can halve the level of staff assaults for frontline rail workers. It also has a positive influence on judicial outcomes when staff assaults are taken to court because of the quality of the visual and audio footage it provides.

Transport Support and Enforcement (TSE) Officers

TSEs were introduced as part of the TfL Work-related Violence and Aggression Strategy to tackle the common triggers of WVA and offers a visible and reassuring presence to our people and our customers.

Our officers are highly trained in conflict management with powers and equipment to deal with anti-social behaviour and enforce byelaws and regulations.

TSEs deal with WVA triggers, anti-social behaviour and byelaw breaches through engagement, education and, where necessary, enforcement.

In the most serious cases or instances of passengers refusing to engage and comply, they can use physical interventions to prevent harm and injury, or to deny service.​

Officers are also accredited under the Railway Safety Accreditation Scheme (RSAS) - this allows them to do Police National Computer (PNC) checks on offenders. PNC checks allow officers to check in real-time for things like a person's criminal history, people wanted for arrest or missing people.

Conflict management training

In 2024 we began rolling out a new programme of mandatory conflict management training for customer-facing operational teams working in high-risk locations for WVA across our Tube, bus and river services. This is in line with our WVA strategy commitment to improve conflict management and de-escalation training.

WVA Reporting

We report quarterly to the Safety, Sustainability & HR panel on our work to eliminate WVA.