§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the impact of his Department's policies on the constituency of Regent's Park and Kensington North since 1997. [145422]
§ Ms BlearsMost of the policies initiated by the Home Office since 1997 have had an impact on the Regent's Park and Kensington North constituency as on other parts of the country. Our policies in the areas of crime reduction, anti-social behaviour and policing are providing direct benefits to the people of Regent's Park and Kensington North.
It is not possible to give details back to 1997, but policies and initiatives in recent years in the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) areas of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster have included:
Crime Reduction Initiatives
Initiatives that have been funded in Kensington and Chelsea and City of Westminster for crime reduction purposes (total amount of funding awarded).
Name of initiative Year City of Westminster
(£)
Kensington and Chelsea
(£)
CCTV—Round 1 2000–03 1,205,000 117,000 CCTV—Round 2 2001–03 65,738 281,000 Reducing burglary initiative 2002–03 — 59,582 Communities against drugs 2001–02 277,800 199,400 2002–03 956,047 199,400 Safer communities initiative 2002–03 162,581 96,144 Partnership development fund (PDF) 2001–02 — 12,500 Small retailers in deprived areas (SRDA)
2003–04 21,023 21,023 Building safer communities fund (BSC)
2003–04 455,792 304,805 Basic command unit fund (BCU)
2003–04 433,000 232,000 Interventions funded by crime reduction allocations included:
Westminster: CCTV cameras and a mobile CCTV system, an initiative to tackle drug related crime from a health, community and environmental angle, street wardens and action against drugs.
Kensington and Chelsea: CCTV in North Kensington crime hot spots and purchase of a mobile CCTV van, tackling vandalism and anti-social behaviour in the Delgarno Neighbourhood, a hardening and repair of burgled properties initiative, action against drugs aimed at young people, community outreach on domestic violence and youth diversion programmes.
Statistics published on the Metropolitan police website show a fall in crime over the past year.
656WStreet Crime
The Metropolitan police service has been part of the street crime initiative since its launch in March 2002. Westminster is one of the priority London street crime boroughs. There were 1,752 robberies in Westminster during 2002–03, a reduction of 36.6 per cent. on 2001–02. In Kensington and Chelsea there were 673 robberies in 2002–03, a reduction of 43.4 per cent. on 2001–02. Overall robbery reduced in London by 21 per cent. comparing 2002–03 with 2001–02.
Positive Action for Young People (PAYP)
Central London Connexions was launched in June 2002, following a pilot period. Connexions has provided considerable support to help young people in the Regent's Park and Kensington North area to participate and achieve in education, employment and training in partnership with youth services, schools, colleges and other providers. Personal advisers (PAs) are placed in many voluntary and statutory youth clubs providing support to young people including music, art and sports projects, and through PAs in detached youth work teams.
PAYP programmes have been particularly successful on Regent's Park and Delgarno estates.
From April to September 2003, across the boroughs of Camden, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, 11,341 interventions took place with young people through Connexions support to approximately 6,000 young people. An additional 7,184 young people took part in PAYP activities in the area.
Anti-Social Behaviour
Westminster: The City of Westminster was granted £25,000 in 2002–03 for a designated controlled drinking areas scheme.
Kensington and Chelsea: In 2003–04, funding of £22,414 has been allocated from the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit to enable the CDRP to commence recruitment of an anti-social behaviour (ASB) specialist.
Remaining funds will be used to contribute towards the development of a web-based anti-social behaviour case tracking tool.
Policing
Government grant (excluding targeted initiatives) for the Metropolitan police force for 2003–04 is £1,764.05 million, an increase of 5.2 per cent. or £87.73 million over 2002–03.
On top of this, the Metropolitan police will benefit from a number of targeted initiatives, set out in the table:
Metropolitan Police funding—selected specific grants £ million 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Total Crime fighting fund 43.05 65.89 70.46 179.4 Community support officers — 8 15 23 Airwave — 45.69 15.02 60.71 Street crime — 14.20 8.01 22.21 In addition, the Metropolitan police will also receive in 2003–04:
£41.24 million in capital funding in 2003–04, plus up to £40 million capital funds for the C3i project.657WThe force has also benefited from extra funding for DNA work—around £9.3 million this year.£0.20 million from the premises improvement fund.£62.0 million funding for counter-terrorism—£15.0 million for community support officers and £47.0 million towards the wider counter-terrorism programme.Between 1997 and 2003, the number of police officers in the Metropolitan police force increased from 26,677 to 28,845.
The introduction of community support officers (CSOs) in 2002 is helping to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour on the streets.
Regent's Park and Kensington North constituency is served by two Operational Command Units (OCUs). Borough of Camden OCU covers Regent's Park. It will have a total of 38 CSOs by the end of March 2004. The OCU of Kensington and Chelsea (of which Kensington North form only a part) will have a total of 42 CSOs by the end of March 2004.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's Community Safety Team has allocated an additional 10 CSOs for 2004–05 for the St. Charles Ward in North Kensington. Funding for this has come from the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.