HC Deb 30 October 2000 vol 355 cc314-5W
Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which areas have been determined as having sufficiently high burglary rates to be eligible to participate in the extended home energy efficiency scheme for the provision of safety equipment; and what the threshold is for inclusion. [135818]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The eligible areas are all those police Basic Command Units in England that, according to the recorded crime figures published in January 2000, had a domestic burglary rate above the English average—i.e. at least 11 burglaries per 1,000 households in the six months between April and September 1999. Between them, these Basic Command Units account for almost 40 per cent. of all the households in England.

For Wales, separate arrangements are being made by the National Assembly.

The eligible Basic Command Units are as listed:

Mr. Jim Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which organisations were consulted about proposals to extend the home energy efficiency scheme to include safety equipment; and how many organisations were invited to tender for the new elements of the scheme(a) in the Coventry area and (b) nationally. [135817]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The following organisations were consulted:

  • The McCarthy Foundation (which co-ordinates a number of Bobby Van Services—schemes that provide home security up-grades for elderly and other vulnerable people);
  • Help the Aged (who also operate similar schemes in a number of areas around the country);
  • Bexley Victim Support;
  • the Association of Chief Police Officers;
  • the British Security Industry Association;
  • the Association of British Insurers;
  • the Master Locksmiths Association;
  • the Association of Builders Hardware;
  • Her Majesty's Fire Service Inspectorate;
  • Safer Merthyr Tydfil;
  • the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, which is responsible for the New Home Energy Efficiency Scheme;
  • The Buying Agency; and
  • Eaga Partnership Ltd. and Eastern Energy Ltd., who were appointed by the DETR as Scheme Managers.

Responsibility for appointing installers to fit the locks and other home security hardware lay with the Scheme Managers. They published an advertisement in the European Journal, in response to which 250 organisations expressed an interest in tendering. Of these, we understand that 206 were formally Invited to Tender, 184 responded and 54 were appointed. For the Coventry area, 19 companies expressed an interest and two were appointed.

In addition, The Buying Agency published, on our behalf, an advertisement in the European Journal concerning the supply of the security hardware, in response to which seven organisations expressed an interest in tendering. All seven were formally invited to tender. None was based in Coventry.