§ 17. Mr. BorrowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the Government's plans to give crime prevention a higher priority. [5523]
§ Mr. MichaelWe are determined to raise the profile of crime prevention across the board. It makes far more sense to stop a crime happening than to have to pick up the pieces afterwards, important though it is to help victims and to catch and punish offenders.
One of our first priorities is to place a new duty on local authorities and the police service together to develop statutory local partnerships for crime prevention and community safety and, with other key partners, to agree local community safety targets. Our proposals, which we intend to include in the crime and disorder Bill later this year, will be developed on the basis of full consultation with all interested parties.
§ Mr. BorrowThe Minister's answer will be welcomed in my constituency of South Ribble. I am, however, 610 somewhat concerned that local crime prevention strategies—a welcome move which should be carried out by local partnerships—might be based on the statistics for reported crime, which give a false picture, especially in more deprived areas. Will my hon. Friend assure me that proposals will be brought forward to ensure that there is a proper investigation, involving local communities, of the real level of crime and the nature of crime, so that effective local strategies are put in place as a result of his proposals?
§ Mr. MichaelMy hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I have had the experience in an area of my constituency where there were problems trying to reconcile the police view of crime and the local authority's view of crime. When we asked local people, they said, "You've both got it wrong." Absolutely central to the process I have described will be a local crime and disorder audit to identify problems of concern to all local people by using both police and local authority experience of crime and disorder and listening to the views of the community.
Once the problems have been identified, there are many ways in which they can be tackled. When I was a board member of Crime Concern, I saw some of the excellent initiatives that had been developed there. Only last week, in the Prudential youth action awards, we saw examples of young people being part of the solution and not part of the problem when they are invited and brought into tackling local neighbourhood problems. I certainly take on board my hon. Friend's points.
§ Mr. BaldryIs the House to understand, from the Minister's earlier comments about tightness of funding in the Home Office, the Home Secretary's refusal to set any targets for increasing the number of police officers and the fact that the police and the Home Office had not a mention in last week's Budget, that the Home Office is having a pretty tough time in its negotiations with the Treasury? Given that the best method of crime prevention is more police officers, is not the message that is coming through clearly this afternoon that the Home Office is short of funding and that there will be less funding for our police forces in the coming years?
§ Mr. MichaelI think that the hon. Gentleman has been day dreaming for the past three quarters of an hour. The message that is coming through quite clearly is that the Government will use the resources available within the police service, the Home Office and local authorities to tackle crime and its causes—an area in which the Conservative Government were guilty of abject failure for 18 years, when crime rocketed and, in the past few years, violent crime has gone through the roof. I promise the hon. Gentleman that a Government who will tackle these issues has replaced a Government who failed on these issues.