§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has made of the cost to public funds of vandalism in 1975, or the latest 12-month period for which figures are available.
§ Mr. Alexander W. LyonI have been asked to reply.
The recently published Report, Protection Against Vandalism, of a Working Party of the Home Office Standing Committee on Crime Prevention, concluded that no precise estimate can be made of the very considerable total cost of criminal damage both to public funds and to private organisations and individuals. The Report contains, however, some selective estimates of costs incurred by individual local authorities and public corporations.
The costs to public funds include not only those of repair and replacement of damaged property, but also those of crime prevention and law enforcement, of the prosecution and trial of those 487W accused, and of the penal measures imposed on those found guilty.