§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of crime prevention partnerships in reducing crime in the Buckingham constituency.[22628]
§ Mr. DenhamThe Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires the responsible authorities—police and local authorities—for each area jointly to conduct an audit of all crime and disorder and in the light of that and following local consultation, to formulate and implement a crime and disorder reduction strategy. In so doing, they must involve other local agencies, and the local community. The Act also requires the responsible authorities to keep the strategy under review to monitor its effectiveness.
The Buckingham constituency falls within the Aylesbury Vale Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP). The Partnership has conducted an audit of crime and disorder in their area to inform their strategy for crime and disorder reduction for Aylesbury Vale for the period April 2002 to April 2005. This strategy was published in April 2002.
Latest recorded crime figures published in July 2002 for the 12-month period to March 2002 are set out in the table, along with comparisons for the previous two years. British Crime Survey (BCS) figures are not available at CDRP or Basic Command Unit (BCU) level, but figures for 2001–02 do show significant national reductions in the key categories of crime over the two years since the last BCS with a large enough sample size to demonstrate trends (1999): burglary fell by 23 per cent.; vehicle thefts fell by 14 per cent.; common assaults fell by 28 per cent.; vandalism fell by six per cent.; and overall crime fell by 14 per cent. The BCS also demonstrates that the chances of being a victim of crime remain stable at their lowest level for nearly twenty years. In the South East region, the BCS shows that burglary and vehicle crime levels are well below the national average, although the same cannot be said for violent crime.
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Aylesbury Vale Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Number of offences Recorded Crime 2001–02 2000–01 1999–2000 Violence against the person 970 1,016 842 Sexual offences 57 68 70 Robbery 147 133 58 Burglary dwelling 779 533 622 Theft of motor vehicle 523 540 604 Theft from a motor vehicle 1,925 2,076 2,054