HC Deb 17 March 2004 vol 419 cc341-4W
Mrs. Gillan

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Written Statement of 10 March 2004,Official Report, columns 101–2WS, on crime and disorder reduction partnerships, if he will list the grants each partnership will receive; when they will receive them; and what the process of distribution will be. [161630]

Ms Blears

[holding answer 15 March 2004]: Individual funding allocations under the Building Safer Communities (BSC) Fund was circulated to Government Offices, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), Drug Action Teams, Local Authority Chief Executives and Chief Officers of Police on 10 March. This followed my Written Ministerial Statement of the same day.

CDRPs will continue to claim their grant moneys on a quarterly basis beginning in the first quarter of 2004–05 (Year 2 of the fund). Payments are made directly into local authority bank accounts following approval of their quarterly grant claims during the financial year. It is then the responsibility of local authorities to ensure further payments are made as required to other agencies and groups in accordance with the CDRPs' agreed plans.

I am placing copies of the full allocations table in the Library.

Mr. Oaten

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the contribution of situational crime prevention techniques to recent reductions in crime. [160203]

Ms Blears

It is not possible to quantify the contribution of situational crime prevention to the recent reduction in crime. This is because situational crime prevention encompasses a wide range of initiatives that aim to make crime more difficult, more risky and less rewarding. There is recent evidence on the effectiveness of some forms of situational crime prevention in this country (for example, alley-gating and CCTV). Results from the British Crime Survey also provide evidence that domestic households that own security measures have a lower chance of being a victim of burglary, even when factors that might be related to both risk and security are taken into account. Recent sweeps of the British Crime Survey have shown that household ownership of a range of security measures is increasing. It is therefore reasonable to think that this may have contributed to the reduction in property crimes over recent years.

Burglary

A major evaluation of some 300 of the local burglary reduction schemes in Phase I of the Safer Cities Programme (1988–95) showed typically a 10–30 per cent. reduction in burglary. It was estimated (with results scaled up to the entire programme) that these, mainly situational, measures prevented some 56,000 burglaries, whose cost to victims and the state would have been £62 million, for expenditure of under £7 million. An evaluation in West Yorkshire of housing incorporating Secured By Design standards (a national police-led certification scheme) showed a crime rate that was 56 per cent. lower, and there is evidence that as well as being effective, this approach is now becoming cost-effective.

One of the most extensive and recent uses of situational crime prevention techniques has been under the Home Office's Reducing Burglary Initiative. Such techniques were employed in the majority of the 247 projects funded between 1999 and 2002. 63 of these projects were subject to a full independent evaluation under Phase I of the initiative. The interim report on these evaluations (Home Office Findings 204, 'Reducing Burglary Initiative, early findings on burglary reduction', published in 2003) reported that situational crime prevention techniques—when planned, targeted, and implemented successfully—were an effective crime reduction measure. The report highlighted that in the 55 evaluated projects where figures were available, domestic burglary fell by 20 per cent. compared with a pre-project period. This represented a net reduction of 7 per cent. when taking into account the downward trend in burglary found in selected comparison areas.

Four illustrative case studies drawn from the evaluations were published as appendices to the interim report. In all four of these case studies situational crime prevention techniques were considered to have contributed to the observed crime reduction impact. Net burglary reduction in these projects ranged from -12 per cent. to -47 per cent.

However, the interim findings also highlighted the fact that burglary reduction projects were often most effective when they were based—not just on a single approach (such as situational crime prevention)—but on a package of coherent and complementary approaches, including short and long-term measures.

Vehicle crime

Home Office Research Study 266, 'An evaluation of the secured car park award scheme', was also published in 2003, this being an evaluation of a scheme established by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in September 1992. It was designed to encourage car park operators to improve security as a means of reducing criminal activity and the fear of crime in car parks and vehicle retention areas. Results showed that there is evidence that the scheme can help reduce the level of vehicle crime and fear of crime in car parks, when targeted at high crime car parks. The key measures that impact both on crime levels and fear of crime appear to be formal surveillance (including patrols), lighting, access control and the physical appearance of the car park.

Security improvements by manufacturers of new cars are also thought to have been a key factor in reduced levels of car thefts, with compulsory fitting of electronic immobilisers since October 1998, together with other design improvements such as central-locking.

CCTV

A systematic review of the impact of CCTV (Home Office Research Study 252, 'Crime prevention effects of closed circuit television: a systematic review') was published in 2002. This indicated that CCTV was associated with a 41 per cent. reduction in crime in car parks, but provided little evidence of an effect in other settings. Other evaluations show CCTV is most effective when used as part of a wider local crime reduction strategy.

A Home Office funded National Evaluation of CCTV is on-going. Initial findings on implementation from this evaluation were published in 2003 in Home Office Development and Practice Report 7 'National Evaluation of CCTV: early findings on scheme implementation—effective practice guide'. Results relating to the impact of CCTV on crime are not yet available from this evaluation but are expected towards the end of 2004.

Robbery

The Street Crime Initiative was launched in April 2002 to address rises in street crime in 2001–02. It covers the 10 police force areas which together account for the great majority of street crime. Intelligence-led policing in hotspots in the 10 police force areas contributed to a 17 per cent. reduction in robbery in those 10 areas in 2002–03, which means 17,000 fewer offences in those areas.

A pilot scheme is being run by Greater Manchester Police to address crime at automated teller machines (ATMs), by creating defensible spaces around ATMs, to demarcate the area of personal space of the person using the ATM. This makes the potential victim of street crime more spatially aware, and increases the risk to the offender by alerting the ATM user to invasion of defensible space by the offender. Initial findings from the pilot indicate that robbery and theft from the person has fallen at the sites where the scheme is being piloted. There was a 34 per emit. reduction in robbery and theft from the person across the 21 sites in Manchester where the defensible space pilot is running, comparing the six months from 21 December 2002 to 30 June 2003 with the same period in the previous year.