§ Mr. BreedTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what assessment he has made of the success of farm watch schemes in combating crime; [110786]
(2) what assessment he has made of the success of the Kent Country Eye partnership in combating crime. [110785]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Government recognise that, although people in rural areas face much the same sort of crime as urban and inner-city areas, they have different policing needs. Owing to the physical nature of the countryside, police response times may not always be as quick as they or the public would like.
The most effective response to rural crime, therefore, is the partnership approach between the police and local communities and schemes such as Farm Watch and Country Eye are important in enabling members of the public to work with the police and other agencies to tackle specific issues of crime and disorder.
As schemes such as Farm Watch and Country Eye are run at local level in conjunction with local police forces, the Home Office does not keep records and has not 821W evaluated their success. Along with Neighbourhood Watch, though, they appear to be popular and worthy of replication.