Street Crime (Hansard, 2 May 2002)

§ Baroness Blatch
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What policy initiatives are in place or are due to be introduced to ensure that street crime is brought under control by the end of September.

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords., the Government are introducing a comprehensive package of anti-street crime initiatives in the 10 force areas with the worst problem. Those include the fast-tracking of video identity parades; the establishment of specialist courts to deal with street crime and fast-tracking of cases; the extension of juvenile tagging on bail; clarification of the legality of bail door-stepping conditions; new powers for the courts to remand young people to secure accommodation; better systems for sharing information between schools and the police; more schemes involving police in schools; measures to crack down on truancy and bad behaviour in schools; and provision of full-time education for excluded pupils in the worst affected areas.
I can assure the House that there will be further announcements as more initiatives come on stream.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his list. The Prime Minister pledged to bring street crime under control by September. That pledge comes against a background of crime across England rising by 21 per cent; robberies up by 42 per cent; the number of police down by 500 since 1997; and the number of Specials down by 37 per cent—a mighty 7,100. If the Prime Minister is now pledged to bring all that under control in 16 weeks' time, why has he not been more successful during the past five years?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, the Government's record on crime is extremely impressive. Since 1997, crime has reduced by 21 per cent overall. I accept that robberies have increased during that time. That is precisely why the Government—the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Government as a whole—are fully committed to introducing a range of measures to tackle crimes such as robbery and to ensure that they are swept from our streets.

§ Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate
My Lords, given that much street crime is caused by the misuse of hard drugs, does my noble friend agree that the approach of the Association of Chief Police Officers—to provide more treatment, as opposed to punishment—is sensible to deal with the problem? Those who argue that that is going soft on drugs are wrong, because that deals with the problem in a far smarter way by providing exits from the addiction that drives people to commit street crime.

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, it is commonly accepted and widely known that drugs drive crime—street crime in particular. That is why the Government 797 have in the past couple of Budgets announced more resources to tackle crime. As part of that initiative, the Department of Health will ensure that the necessary drug treatments are in place, so that services are fully engaged in exchanging information—in particular, about children at risk from drugs and drug offences. So we are fully committed to ensuring that we do everything that we can to tackle the drugs menace.

§ Lord Dholakia
My Lords, can the Minister tell us of any additional financial resources available to criminal justice agencies to reduce crime by September? What advice—research advice in particular—did the Prime Minister receive about withdrawal of benefits from parents and its impact on crime?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, yesterday, the Home Office made an announcement of a budget boost to tackle street crime, along with a package of measures to assist the police in countering terrorism. On the question of child benefit and its withdrawal, the Prime Minister made plain yesterday that that is one of a number of proposals being actively considered as part of the Government's overall drive against antisocial behaviour.

Lord Renton
My Lords, does the noble Lord recollect that until about 30 or 40 years ago, streets in many of our urban areas were patrolled, even through the night, by pairs of police officers on foot? That helped to keep crime down. Might that not be an advantage now in some urban areas?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, of course we fully support, encourage and fund active beat patrolling by police officers. It is for the 34 chief constables and their senior officers to deploy their police resources as best they can. The Government are fully committed to ensuring that we have more police officers. By March next year, we will have 130,000 police officers serving in this country—a record number.

§ Lord Elton
My Lords, to what level will street crime have to be reduced for the Prime Minister to say that it has been brought under control? In other words, what is the Government's view of an acceptable level of street crime? Can we have a figure, so that we will know when we get there?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, any street crime is unacceptable. There is a Public Service Agreement target, which is to reduce robberies by 14 per cent during the next five years, but I expect that your Lordships' House would like street crime to be eradicated in its entirety.

§ Lord Campbell of Alloway
My Lords, who will treat all those people; where will they be treated; and what will happen if they refuse to accept treatment—after all, they have committed crimes? What is the essence of the working of the plan?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, the anti-street crime initiative takes many forms. We are attacking the problem through schools, by having police officers attached to schools with particular problems. There will be more resources to deal with drug treatment and to tackle the increased use of courts. The police are receiving more resources to ensure that they can do their job with greater perception and accuracy. The whole strategy is linked, comprehensive and coherent, and it has the support of the police service.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, in the list of measures that the noble Lord read out, he said nothing about closed-circuit television cameras. Has the Metropolitan Police presented a budget for extra CCTV cameras in the areas worst affected by street crime? If so, how much of that money has been provided?

§ Lord Bassam of Brighton
My Lords, I do not have those figures to hand. As the noble Lord will know, the Government—and the previous government—have invested considerable resources in enhancing CCTV nationally. Budgets have been specifically set aside for that and the impact of CCTV is widely acknowledged as being most beneficial in driving down crime.