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On Track Crime Reduction

Mr. Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will announce the areas that have been selected to participate in the On Track Crime Reduction Programme. [122441]

Mr. Boateng: I am pleased to announce today that 24 areas have been selected to participate in the On Track programme.

The On Track programme is a long-term crime reduction programme aimed at children between four and 12 years who are at risk of offending. It is a central element of the Government's Crime Reduction Programme's agenda on tackling the causes of crime. Eighty local authorities were invited last December to participate in the programme. The 24 areas have been selected from 76.

The objective will be to establish in each pilot area an enhanced range of evidenced-based preventive services. These will include family support training, home visiting, pre-school education, parent-school partnerships, family therapy and specialist interventions. There will be intensive inter-agency co-operation so that children at risk of offending are identified early and they and their families provided with consistent services through the child's development.

The following areas have been selected to participate in the programme:

Bradford
Brent
Bristol
Brighton and Hove
Bury St. Edmunds (Suffolk)
Easington (Durham)
Greenwich
Haringey
Kerrier (Cornwall)
Luton
Manchester

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Northampton (Northamptonshire)
Oldham
Portsmouth
Rochdale
Sandwell
Scarborough (North Yorkshire)
Sheffield
Solihull
Southwark
Sunderland

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Wirral
Wales:
Bridgend
Rhondda Cynon Taff

I have written to the Members for these areas in whose constituencies the pilot areas fall.

The On Track programme will establish an effective and cohesive programme of early prevention in these communities. It will have a real impact on youth crime in the areas concerned and provide valuable information on what works best in terms of early prevention.

15 May 2000 : Column: 65W

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