HC Deb 23 June 2004 vol 422 cc1417-8W
Mr. Sheerman

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much Police(a) time and (b) resources were spent on dealing with problems associated with excessive drinking in the latest year for which figures are available. [179646]

Ms Blears

No specific grant is made available to police forces to deal directly with the problems associated with excessive drinking. However, the total Government provision for policing to be supported by grant or spent centrally on services for the police amounts to £10.1 billion, an increase of £2.3 billion or 30 per cent. since 2000–01. It is for individual police forces to decide how they allocate their resources to tackle their crime and disorder priorities.

There is provision within the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSC) for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to tackle alcohol-related crime—just one of the many crime reduction uses to which BSC funding may be put. Total funding for England and Wales in 2003–04 was £72.3 million, and a further £74 million is being made available this year.

The Government attach a high priority to tackling alcohol-fuelled violence. On the 11 June 2004 we announced that the Home Office Police Standards Unit, working in partnership with the Association of Chief Police Officers, will be inviting forces and other partners from across the country to take part in a co-ordinated programme of enforcement and initiatives to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence. The campaign includes targeting the irresponsible few who encourage underage and binge drinking and targeting drunken behaviour. This takes forward one of the recommendations in the Government's Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy (AHRS) for England.

The Government's AHRS was published on 15 March 2004. The strategy proposes a series of measures to address the problems of those town and city centres that are blighted by alcohol misuse. The Government are working closely with a range of partners from the drinks industry to statutory authorities to help deliver the recommendations in the AHRS and tackle alcohol misuse.