HC Deb 26 June 2000 vol 352 cc654-5
10. Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South)

How much funding his Department will provide in the current financial year to support CCTV schemes. [126128]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Charles Clarke)

Under the crime reduction programme CCTV initiative, we are investing £153 million over three years in new or extended CCTV systems in England and Wales. Nearly £60 million of capital funding has already been allocated to crime and disorder reduction partnerships to support more than 340 CCTV schemes. Partnerships have begun to bid for the remaining £90 million under a rolling programme of funding that will run until the end of 2001. Details of any new CCTV awards will continue to be posted on the Home Office website.

Mr. Chapman

My hon. Friend will be aware that several CCTV schemes in the Wirral have been or are about to be approved and that such schemes are effective in reducing crime. However, there is a related issue of the trading environment: for example, in my constituency, the shopkeepers and licensees of New Ferry are collaborating to improve the trading environment in a small community shopping area; they believe that CCTV's effect on youth theft and vandalism, general crime and night-time disturbances would be such that local people's shopping facilities could be much improved. Does my hon. Friend agree that, although the money made available so far is welcome, far more needs to be made available, so that areas such as New Ferry can tackle such issues?

Mr. Clarke

My hon. Friend makes an important point, which explains why the guidelines for the further rolling-round that we published in February emphasise, first, the need for joint bids from local authorities and local business, because there are significant economies of scale to be made, and secondly, the need to go for schemes on small shopping precincts outside the city centres, which have not always been economic. The guidelines on the web set out clearly how that can be achieved. I hope that my hon. Friend's crime reduction partnership in the Wirral will produce proposals which meet that point and the points that he raised in his question.

Mr. Edward Leigh (Gainsborough)

CCTV cameras are quite effective against young vandals, but if the young vandals were not on the streets in the first place, that would be even more effective. How many child curfew orders have been issued since the Crime and Disorder Act 1998? If, as I suspect, the answer is none, how great has the impact of such orders been in keeping young vandals off the street? Is this a new example of zero tolerance, or perhaps of the third way? The first way is to do something, the second way is to do nothing, and the third way—the Government's way—is to do nothing but put a spin on it.

Mr. Clarke

The hon. Gentleman's cynicism is uncharacteristic. It is unfortunate that the various anti-social behaviour orders and child curfew orders—[HON. MEMBERS: "How many?] There have been very few. Those orders have been opposed down the line by the Opposition. We are doing our best, as my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary described, to roll out the anti-social behaviour orders. CCTV is an effective weapon to help to ensure that young people in all areas of towns and cities behave in a social way. We intend to keep on funding that programme to a much greater extent than the Conservatives ever did.

Dr. Nick Palmer (Broxtowe)

Does my hon. Friend accept that the guidelines issued by the Data Protection Commissioner for the use of CCTV have largely allayed the fears expressed by some people about their operation? Will he accept the congratulations of people in Beeston and Kimberley in my constituency, who greatly welcome the imminent arrival of the cameras as a major step forward in combating youth crime in our area?

Mr. Clarke

As my hon. Friend says, some of the doubts that existed have been allayed by the guidelines. I know that many constituents of many hon. Members are delighted by the CCTV schemes that we have introduced and paid for, which are setting about reducing crime and disorder consistently and effectively.