§ Mr. Chris Smithasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any plans to make additional funds available to local authorities where they embark on schemes to make crime prevention grants available to 161W residents in their area; whether expenditure on such grants will be excluded from penalty consideration and rate limits; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TraceyThe Government are already providing support for a number of such schemes through the urban programme and the community programme. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has asked the working group on residential burglary to review the question of security grants and will be considering its report in due course.
Local authority expenditure on crime prevention grants is subject to normal block grant rules and would be taken into account as appropriate in setting any rate limits.