Fear of Crime (Hansard, 25 January 2002)

§ Mr. Denham

It is a key priority of the Government to reduce crime and the fear of crime through effective law enforcement and partnership working. The British Crime Survey shows that fear of crime generally has been declining since 1998. There are a large number of different programmes operating throughout London and in specific boroughs of London aimed at reducing crime, and it is the Government's policy wherever possible to ensure that they also effectively reduce the fear of crime to include programmes aimed at reducing street robbery, violence at licensed premises and on public transport, and racist attacks and harassment; it would not be practicable to list all relevant programmes currently operating in London.

There are a number of relevant initiatives being carried out in Havering under the Home Office's Crime Reduction Programme. Among them is the targeted Policing Initiative Project aimed at understanding and responding to hate crime; this initiative is still at an early stage of development and has an allocated funding of £287,000 for a 22-month period. Funds have also been 1184W allocated for Neighbourhood Wardens; one of the objectives of this scheme is to reduce fear of crime by five per cent. by March 2003. £466,583 has been provided to facilitate new and replacement Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in the borough, as a result of which over 1,000 crimes are expected to be prevented in the first three years of operation. Funds have also been allocated to tackle drugs problems in the borough, including allowing for higher visibility policing. In addition to these schemes and initiatives 3,000 local people are to be surveyed for their views on fear of crime and their personal priorities for crime reduction. This information will be used to inform decisions on priorities for the Crime Reduction Strategy for Havering.