§ Mr. SumbergTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what crime prevention and drug prevention initiatives from his Department are presently operating in the Greater Manchester area.
§ Mr. JackThe Home Office is currently operating safer cities crime prevention projects in Salford and Rochdale which between them have so far spent £17.6 million in supporting over 2,800 local crime prevention projects.
As part of their response to the Department's initiative on car crime prevention year, Greater Manchester Police have organised and participated in a number of projects, including the promotion of vehicle watch schemes, the distribution of information packs on car security, the setting up of a special police unit to tackle car crime, and the development of an autocrime project aimed at certain secondary schools. In the 12 months ending June 1992 Greater Manchester police reported a fall in the level of car crime.
The Department has encouraged those districts within the Greater Manchester area which have successfully bid for city challenge status—Manchester (Hulme), Bolton and Wigan—to develop crime prevention strategies and programmes as part of their action plans.
Since February of this year we have also operated local drugs prevention teams in Salford and Manchester, which so far, including their efforts for European drugs prevention week in November, have supported 39 local projects and committed some £128,000 in grants.