§ Mr. DarlingTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what resources he has allocated in respect of his initiative to cut down on city centre crime in Scotland.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonAs part of the Government's safer cities programme, we are initiating four projects in Scotland, in Edinburgh city centre, Castlemilk and Easterhouse in Glasgow, and at one other location which will be announced later. The aim of these projects is to draw in the local authorities, the local police and those living and working in the area in order to develop a co-ordinated strategy for tackling local crime. The role of the Government is to bring together those concerned and to provide initial funding in order to enable a co-ordinator to be appointed, a crime profile to be drawn up and an action plan to be prepared. Initially a sum of £200,000 has been set aside in the current financial year for these purposes. This is in addition to the £400,000 already allocated to crime prevention publicity measures.