§ Ms Glenda JacksonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the effects, with statistical information, on Hampstead and Highgate of his Department's policies since 2 May 1997. [158015]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Home Office is working to build a safe, just and tolerant society in which the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families and communities are properly balanced, and the protection and security of the public are maintained. Detailed information on the impact of Home Office policies across the full range of responsibilities is set out in Home Office Annual Reports. A copy of the most recent report, Home Office Annual Report 2000–01, is available in the Library. Information on recorded crime and policing is also published. 'Recorded Crime England and Wales, 12 months to September 2000' and 'Police Service Strength England and Wales, 30 September 2000' can be found in the Library. The recorded crime statistics include information on recorded crime by Basic Command Unit and Crime and Disorder partnerships.
The impact of Home Office policies and actions is not normally examined by constituency and the statistics which the Department collects, such as recorded crime, cannot be matched in the way requested although set out below are examples relating to the Hampstead and Highgate constituency or the immediate locality:
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
- London Borough of Camden, in partnership with the Metropolitan Police, were awarded £598,000 for a scheme extending the existing Camden Town Centre system with 17 new cameras and provision of a centralised control room. The scheme will encompass three London Underground stations in Camden Town, Chalk Farm and Mornington Crescent.
Youth Offending
- Hampstead and Highgate is covered by the Camden Youth Offending Team (YOT). Multi-agency partnerships have been strengthened through the establishment of YOTs, involving staff from Social Services, Education, Police, Probation and Health Departments. Seven Youth Justice Board (YJB) Development Grants have been awarded to Camden YOT and Youth Service. The local authority continues to allocate over £300,000 per annum in grants to voluntary organisations, the YOT and other
558W departments to develop preventative initiatives. Links are being developed between the YOT and the local minority ethnic communities. A youth inclusion programme has been established in Castlehaven Ward for over 50 young people most at risk of re-offending. This is being funded through YJB and local authority grants for 2 years. The YJB awarded Camden YOT £94,000 for 2000–01 to develop a range of new services including: substance misuse; new Referral Orders and accommodation advice and support. Conditional approval has been given by the YJB for a new Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Scheme (ISSP), between Camden, Islington, Hackney and Tower Hamlet YOTs, to prevent custody and reduce re-offending by the most persistent offenders. Camden YOT is involved with the Police, Housing and Youth Service in response to anti-social behaviour and other local crime issues.
Camden is on course to achieve the multi-agency target of a 15 per cent. reduction in youth offending by March 2002. The YOT is working closely with the police and youth court to halve the time from arrest to sentence of persistent young offenders from 142 to 71 days. YOT preventative and early intervention referrals and services have increased significantly. These include: restorative conferences between victims and offenders; assessments and intervention in response to anti-social behaviour (to prevent the need for anti-social behaviour orders); assessments and enhanced services for looked after children at risk of re-offending; assessments and intervention for other high risk groups including young people involved in substance misuse and excluded from school.
Contact time with young people on court orders has doubled to twice weekly for three months, in accordance with revised national standards. The YOT national assessment tool has been implemented in Camden, enabling analysis of risk factors that contribute to young people offending. A new information system has also been purchased for the YOT, to enhance quality of monitoring.
More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Hampstead and Highgate to a greater or lesser extent. For example:
Information on the Home Office and its policies is also published on its website "www.homeoffice.gov.uk".
- 376 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships have been established;
- racial harassment and racially motivated crimes have been made criminal offences by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;
- the asylum backlog has been cut from 103,495 at the end of January 2000 to 49,590 by the end of February 2001; andl
- good progress is being made in reducing the incidence of fire deaths in England and Wales. They have dropped from 605 in 1997 to 534 in 1999.