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12.42 am
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Charles Clarke): I must first apologise for my earlier remarks, which I acknowledge were out of order.
I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Colchester (Mr. Russell) for obtaining this important debate on Government support for Crimestoppers. As he will
acknowledge, many Members of the House are engaged with Crimestoppers campaigns in their areas--indeed, I have been involved in launching various initiatives in my area. I am delighted that the hon. Gentleman has brought this matter to the attention of the House.It is important to emphasise the statistics involved. According to information supplied by the Crimestoppers Trust, the number of people arrested and charged for each of the past five years as a result of information supplied to Crimestoppers was as follows: in 1995, 3,355 people were arrested and charged; in 1996, 4,347 people were arrested and charged; in 1997, 4,726 people were arrested and charged; in 1998, 5,169 people were arrested and charged; and in 1999, the figure was 5,300.
The 5,300 arrests in 1999 were for very serious crimes, as the hon. Gentleman implied. Some 38 were for murder, 22 for attempted murder, 13 for rape, 202 for robbery, 181 for assault, 338 for burglary, 28 for firearms offences, 209 for handling stolen goods, 2,308 for drugs--a point that the hon. Gentleman made--34 for arson, 410 for theft, 667 for vehicle crime, 18 for sexual assault, 141 for fraud and 691 for other crimes. The hon. Gentleman has drawn attention to that substantial record of achievement in sponsoring this debate, for which I am grateful.
As the hon. Gentleman said, my officials are in regular and constant touch with Crimestoppers. I will be visiting the Crimestoppers Trust head office in Putney on 22 May. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work done by my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Colman) in dialogue with myself and others and, more widely, in promoting the work of Crimestoppers, which is very important.
The hon. Member for Colchester referred to several Crimestoppers campaigns--I shall focus on two of them. The first is the SMART campaign--"Stop motor crime and ring today". With that campaign, Crimestoppers has made a valuable contribution to the fight against vehicle crime--an activity that accounts for 20 per cent. of all recorded crime and costs us at least £3 billion a year. It is encouraging to see from statistics produced by Crimestoppers that, in 1999, the campaign resulted in 667 people being arrested and charged with vehicle crime offences--a 30 per cent. increase on the previous year. I welcome the success of that campaign.
The SNAP--"Say no and phone"--and "Rat on a Rat" campaigns to which the hon. Gentleman also referred are an important element of the work of Crimestoppers. The Government are also committed to a reduction in the misuse of illicit drugs and in associated crime. Two of the main aims of our anti-drugs strategy--"Tackling drugs to build a better Britain"--are to protect our communities from drug-related anti-social and criminal behaviour and to enable people with drug problems to overcome them and to live happy and crime-free lives.
The police give a high priority to tackling drug-related crime and to reducing street dealing. They recognise the added value of involving other partners, such as Crimestoppers, in tackling those aspects of crime.
The SNAP campaign urges people to inform Crimestoppers anonymously if they know of anyone who regularly supplies drugs or commits any drug-related crime. It success is greatly encouraging--I gave some of the statistics earlier.
Another excellent example of the collaborative approach was the Metropolitan police's Operation Crackdown. That was co-ordinated with Crimestoppers
and included an advertising campaign urging the public to "Rat on a Rat" by calling Crimestoppers. The organisation received more than 2,000 calls--300 pieces of intelligence were generated.The success of "Rat on a Rat" demonstrated not only that the public want action against drugs, but the benefits to be reaped from involving Crimestoppers in police operations targeting such criminal activity. It highlights partnership at its best.
There is scope for the forging of closer links between Crimestoppers and other voluntary sector organisations working towards crime reduction--such as the National Neighbourhood Watch Association, Crime Concern, Victim Support and the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders. I should like such links to be developed further.
On 13 April, I chaired a meeting to which I invited representatives from those organisations and Crimestoppers to discuss the possibility of their working more closely, with Government support, to develop a clearer strategic approach, with the overall objective of helping to reduce crime and disorder. We felt that the ambition of crime and disorder partnerships should be to nurture those organisations in local communities. There were instances of them working together on an ad hoc basis, but we believe that there is significant potential to increase such links.
The active community element reflected in the different orientations of those organisations brings together people who could be more effectively associated in the campaign to strengthen their communities against the criminals in their midst. That would be positive for all of us. We are working hard on that matter, although there is no intention to deprioritise the contribution of Crimestoppers or of any of the other organisations. When they all work together, the sum of their parts is greater than the whole.
In that context, the National Neighbourhood Watch Association is organising a seminar on 7 July. We hope that representatives from that wide range of organisations will be able to consider ways of creating the closer links to which I have referred so as to reduce crime and disorder. We hope to produce papers setting a framework for achieving that closer co-operation, nationally and locally, for consideration at the conference.
Mr. Russell: Will the Minister say how many of the other organisations that he mentioned receive Government financial support?
Mr. Clarke: I shall come to that well-made point shortly.
Although voluntary sector organisations generally support the idea of more strategic link-up and although some have expressed concern that they might not have sufficient resources to reach out to other organisations, a significant role can be played by considering in a co-ordinated fashion what national support we offer them. I do not have the figures for which the hon. Gentleman asked, but the Government directly support the other organisations, such as NACRO, neighbourhood watch, Victim Support and Crime Concern, that I mentioned.
We set up the seminar on 13 April because we believe that we should think much more coherently about the support that we give to all the organisations that work to develop an active community. Perhaps I should confess
to the hon. Gentleman that I was tempted to announce a grant to Crimestoppers tonight, because I acknowledge that there is a strong case for giving it financial support. I am not announcing that grant in response to this debate not because we have any questions about Crimestoppers, which we value and esteem, but because we want to ensure that we have a coherent approach for all the organisations, so that they work together on the framework.I can reassure the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend the Member for Putney that we are committed to supporting Crimestoppers financially in the same way that we are committed to supporting the other organisations. However, we are keen to ensure that the Home Office does not provide a bit of money here or a bit of money there to the range of different organisations. With them, the Home Office should consider properly how to provide support so that we can maximise its impact.
We are not imposing a policy on the organisations. Neighbourhood watch, NACRO, Crime Concern, Victim Support and Crimestoppers, with which I have had a constructive dialogue, all recognised at the seminar on 13 April that they, as well as the general crime reduction initiative, will benefit if we can co-ordinate our efforts. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will accept that, although I am not being gracious enough to offer Crimestoppers X amount of money as a result of this debate, I acknowledge the major contribution that it and the other organisations can make. We shall provide funding in that context.
I mentioned the seminar that will take place in July. At that seminar, I hope that we shall reach conclusions about precisely what form of support should be offered and how it should be provided. Although support from headquarters is important, we should try to ensure--by using the web and electronic and other means--that organisations throughout the country make a greater impact by working together in the communities where that is most important.
I can say particularly bluntly at this time of night that some of the organisations compete for members and in their activities and commitments. None of them want to do that--that is not their ambition--because they want to work together. The Government have a catalytic role to play that they have not played in the past. That is why we held a seminar on 13 April and will hold a conference on 7 July. I hope that, through those meetings, we will be able to construct a coherent approach to all these issues.
At the meeting on 13 April, it was decided that there should be two further meeting with officials and representatives--on 12 May and 12 June--to draw up papers commissioned for the seminar on 7 July. Contributions will address several subjects. The first is how best to achieve close co-operation between the relevant organisations at national and local level and the
second is consideration of the forms of support, including training, that the organisations need. As we involve volunteers so much, training is important.The third subject is what business involvement is most useful. Several business organisations contribute, in different ways, to Crimestoppers and other bodies, and are often unaware of how best to focus their energy. We can help in that regard. The fourth issue is what are the best sources of information and how that information should be disseminated, hence the points that I made about the web. The fifth serious matter is the Home Office funding arrangements, which the hon. Gentleman raised and which others have mentioned.
The Home Office intends to provide papers, on the basis of information received, to set out a framework for a much more co-ordinated approach by voluntary sector organisations. Those papers will be considered at the conference on 7 July. I know that the hon. Gentleman's comments will be given full consideration at that event.
I know that the hon. Gentleman, like my hon. Friend the Member for Putney and myself, is a strong, committed supporter of Crimestoppers, but he knows that organisations such as neighbourhood watch, Victim Support and Crime Concern can make a major contribution. He will agree that everything that we can do to get such organisations working together is positive, and I know that he will encourage such co-operation.
As I said, I was tempted to make an announcement about the funding that we will provide for Crimestoppers, but I did not do so because we have been considering carefully the request for financial support from the director of the Crimestoppers trust. We have considered the application in the context of how we can best deploy our resources to reduce crime. We hope shortly to make a decision in the wider context of drawing up the strategic framework.
Crimestoppers can be confident that because it has a long track record, to which I have already referred, it will be well funded, but I shall not give the hon. Member for Colchester the gratification, if that is the right word, of saying that I will give him X amount of cash this evening. I know that he will join me in urging Crimestoppers to work with other organisations concerned with building an active community.
My request for the hon. Gentleman's support is gratuitous because Crimestoppers itself is entirely committed to that end. Developing an active community is very important to us, and I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for securing this Adjournment debate and airing some of the issues. I am especially grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Putney for his consistent campaigning with me and others on behalf of Crimestoppers. I hope that I have set out the Government's approach on these important matters.
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