HC Deb 14 January 1993 vol 216 cc1049-50
8. Mrs. Currie

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police forces have developed special initiatives as part of Car Crime Prevention Year.

Mr. Jack

All 43 police forces in England and Wales have engaged in some form of activity in connection with Car Crime Prevention Year and I take this opportunity of congratulating them on their contribution to a campaign which in its first quarter has seen a 2.5 per cent. reduction in car crime.

Mrs. Currie

Is the Minister aware that last year Derbyshire showed the highest increase in car crime in the country and that certain industrial estates in my constituency have been used by car rings to process cars stolen from a wide area of the midlands? Will he nevertheless join me in praising the considerable efforts of the Derbyshire police force to tackle this problem, after years of delay and pressure from the local Labour-controlled Derbyshire county council intended to impede their operations, and encourage them to take whatever initiatives they can to counter the current crime wave in Derbyshire?

Mr. Jack

I thank my hon. Friend for her support for the efforts of the Derbyshire police to counter car crime. It is only fair to add that the figures show tremendous potential for further reductions and I hope that the Derbyshire police will contact, for example, those involved in Northumbria Partnership Against Car Theft, which has brought about a substantial reduction in the number of cars stolen and thefts from cars.

Mr. Janner

Is the Minister aware that in Leicestershire, as in most counties, the increase in car crime over the past few years has turned into a plague? In the light of that, the Government's refusal to allow the police any additional forces in any of the provinces is a shameful way in which to treat ordinary people in all our constituencies.

Mr. Jack

I am sorry that the hon. and learned Gentleman is single-minded enough to think that police numbers provide the solution to car crime. The police would be the first to admit that it was through their partnership with motor manufacturers, motor traders, car owners and ordinary members of the public that a 2.5 per cent. reduction in car crime was delivered in the second quarter of last year. Let me correct the hon. and learned Gentleman: in this financial year alone, we are putting another 1,000 police officers into service.