§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out(a) baseline data for 1997 and (b) data for subsequent years for his Department's measurement of fear of crime among the elderly as included in the poverty audit, "Opportunity for All". [116025]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe First Annual Report, "Opportunity for All: Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion", was published in September 1999. The indicator for fear of crime and the elderly is the proportion of those aged 60 years or over whose lives are greatly affected by fear of crime. The 1998 British Crime Survey reported that 10 per cent. of people in that age group said that their own quality of life was greatly affected by fear of crime.
This estimate is based on a sample of adults within the age group living in private households in England and Wales. The responses are on a scale of one to 10, where one is no effect and 10 is total effect on the quality of their lives. The definition of "greatly affected" are those who give scores of eight, nine or 10 on the scale. The question is being repeated in the 2000 British Crime Survey.