§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money has been awarded to provide home security improvements for low income pensioners in each year since 1997. [106384]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe total cost of measures funded by the Home Office under the scheme to provide home security improvements for low income pensioners living in high crime areas in England, was £5.79 million, including the budgeted provision for 2002–03—final outturn figures for 2002–03 are not yet available. This is split as follows:
£ million 2000–01 0.927 2001–02 3.286 2002–031 1.575 1 Budgeted provision The scheme ran from July 2000 to June 2002. These figures cover only the purchase and installation of the security hardware; they do not include administrative or other overhead costs.
The scheme in Wales has been run under separate arrangements. £44,000 was spent on security measures in 2000–01 and £106,000 in 2001–02. On cessation of the scheme in June 2002, the Welsh Assembly decided to 920W maintain the provision of security equipment as an eligible measure under its Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, but chose not to set any targets, nor earmark dedicated funding in relation to this work.
Other projects funded under the Crime Reduction Programme have provided home security improvements, including for the elderly, but a breakdown of the age profile of recipients is not available centrally.