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Departmental Policies (Bristol, South)
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out, including statistical information relating as directly as possible to the constituency, the effect on the Bristol, South constituency of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [158856]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The Home Office is working to build a safe, just and tolerant society in which the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families and communities are properly balanced, and the protection and security of the public are maintained. Detailed information on the impact of Home Office policies across the full range of responsibilities is set out in Home Office Annual Reports. A copy of the most recent report, Home Office Annual Report 2000-01, is available in the Library. Information on recorded crime and policing is also published. "Recorded Crime England and Wales, 12 months to September 2000" and "Police Service Strength England and Wales, 30 September 2000" can be found in the Library. The recorded crime statistics include information on recorded crime by basic command unit and crime and disorder partnerships.
The impact of Home Office policies and actions is not normally examined by constituency and the statistics which the Department collects, such as recorded crime, cannot be matched in the way requested although set out are examples relating to the Bristol, South constituency or the immediate locality:
Reducing Burglary Initiative (RBI)
Under round 2 of the RBI, Avon and Somerset Constabulary in partnership with Bristol city council have been awarded £152,000 and £89,000 for projects in Knowle and Knowle West and Hartcliffe respectively. The main interventions proposed are target hardening; fencing of rear gardens and intervention work.
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Under round 3 of the initiative, Avon and Somerset Constabulary in partnership with all local authorities in the force area have been awarded approximately £650,000 for a project to test new forensic techniques.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
Bristol city council has one bid for CCTV funding entitled "Safer Symes CCTV scheme" to a potential capital of £237,000 shortlisted for further consideration under round 2 of the CCTV initiative.
The Bristol Youth Offending Team (YOT) during 2000-01 has worked with 2,200 young offenders and supervised 330 young people on community-based orders. The YOT has prepared more than 450 court reports and its appropriate adult volunteers have attended 350 interviews with young people at police stations. The YOT has established offender-victim mediation services and is providing intervention programmes to confront young offenders with the views of their victims. The YOT is also working to deliver the Government's pledge to halve the average time taken from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders, from 142 to 71 days. The most recent figure for Bristol is 89 days.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is currently providing funding for one bail support and five intervention schemes through its development fund. The Prince's Trust operates an education project, FIVE, that is based in five cities in England and Wales working with young offenders and those at risk of offending, aged 14-17, through the provision of two Prince's Trust programmes. This has been awarded a YJB grant of £340,000. Fairbridge West run an education, training and employment project, Constructive Alternatives Through Life Skills for Life that works with persistent young offenders and those on final warning in trying to build personal, social and independence skills. This is receiving YJB funding of approximately £64,000. £128,000 is provided towards a project run by Include. This is an education, training and employment project called Post 16 Bridge Course, that works with 16 and 17-year-old persistent offenders who have poor educational achievements and limited employment prospects. Bristol YOT runs a parenting scheme, Bristol Parenting Support Project, that supports parents of young people who are offending so that they may help their child reduce offending. This project receives £60,000 of YJB funding. A grant of £82,000 has been awarded to the Children's Society for a prevention programme it operates called Right Track, which provides support for black children and young people aged 10-17 who are involved in the criminal justice system.
The Bristol Remand and Intensive Support Project is being implemented by Bristol YOT and NACRO (National Association for Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders). £370,000 has been awarded to the project whose main objective is to reduce the incidence of custodial remands for 10 to 17-year-olds.
More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Bristol, South to a greater or lesser extent. For example:
- 376 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships have been established;
- racial harassment and racially motivated crimes have been made criminal offences by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;
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the asylum backlog has been cut from 103,495 at the end of January 2000 to 49,690 by the end of February 2001; and
- good progress is being made in reducing the incidence of fire deaths in England and Wales. They have dropped from 605 in 1997 to 534 in 1999.
Departmental Policies
(Southwark, North and Bermondsey)
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out, including statistical information relating as directly as possible to the constituency, the effect on the Southwark, North and Bermondsey constituency of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [158861]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The Home Office is working to build a safe, just and tolerant society in which the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families and communities are properly balanced, and the protection and security of the public are maintained. Detailed information on the impact of Home Office policies across the full range of responsibilities is set out in Home Office Annual Reports. A copy of the most recent report, Home Office Annual Report 2000-01, is available in the Library. Information on recorded crime and policing is also published. "Recorded Crime England and Wales, 12 months to September 2000" and "Police Service Strength England and Wales, 30 September 2000" can be found in the Library.
The recorded crime statistics include information on recorded crime by basic command unit and crime and disorder partnerships.
The impact of Home Office policies and actions is not normally examined by constituency and the statistics which the Department collects, such as recorded crime, cannot be matched in the way requested although set out are examples relating to the Southwark and Bermondsey, North constituency or the immediate locality:
Under round 1 of the Targeted Policing Initiative the Metropolitan police in partnership with the London boroughs of Islington, Camden and Southwark were awarded £597,000 for a scheme covering these boroughs targeting auto crime through Operation Arrow, which is aimed at "hotspots" in the three boroughs.
Under round 2 of the initiative the Metropolitan police were awarded £688,000 for a project covering Southwark to tackle hate crime. Methods used will include the creation of local self-help groups defined by cultural, ethnic or lifestyle profile and supported by a dedicated co-ordinator. The use of the rapid hate crime intervention officer, who would have access to a range of evidence collection methods, will be available.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
London borough of Southwark was awarded approximately £850,000 for two schemes submitted under round 1 of the CCTV initiative. Housing CCTV Control Centre and Mobile CCTV Scheme was awarded £750,000 to provide a new control centre with the capacity to manage 500 cameras. In addition, 50 new mobile cameras
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will be situated in crime "hotspots" across the borough. The scheme aims significantly to reduce overall crime, drug-related crime and burglary.
The Car Park Vehicle Crime Prevention Scheme was awarded £100,000 for a 26 camera system, covering six car parks across the borough. The scheme aims to reduce all vehicle crime in the target area by 80 per cent. over three years.
Reducing Burglary Initiative (RBI)
The Metropolitan police in conjunction with the London borough of Southwark were awarded £65,000 under round 1 of the RBI, for a scheme in the West Camberwell area. Interventions include: establishment of a lock-fitting service to target burglary victims and vulnerable properties and establishment of a detached youth project. The quality of service to victims has been improved and a problem solving approach to burglary and improvements in relevant monitoring and communication systems is being developed. £65,000 was awarded to a scheme in the Parkside Plus area correcting physical vulnerability of vulnerable estates in the target area. It is also helping to develop new ways of working with offenders in the area.
Under round 2 of the RBI, approximately £30,000 was awarded for a scheme in the Herne Hill and Croxted Road, West Dulwich areas. This project aimed to tackle situational vulnerability and unmarked property by using electronic alarms and property marking as well as increasing neighbourhood watch activity. £153,000 was awarded for a scheme in the North Southwark Corridor. The scheme aims to improve property marking and to work with offenders and work towards community building.
North Southwark and Bermondsey is covered by Southwark Youth Offending Team (YOT). The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is contributing funding for five intervention schemes and one bail supervision scheme. Approximately £170,000 is being used to fund a Restorative Justice Conferencing Project. Southwark Mediation Centre works with the YOT to provide direct and indirect victim-offender mediation and family group conferencing services. Family Group Conferencing is offered to young people remanded into local authority accommodation, young people subject to throughcare and young people made the subject of Action Plan Orders.
A Positive Parenting and Behavioural Change Programme includes the assessment of cognitive abilities. The YOT caseworkers provide consultation and life supervision via social skills training, anger management and cognitive behavioural interventions. The YJB are contributing £119,000 to this project. The YJB are also providing approximately £117,000 to an Appropriate Alternatives through Skills for Life (Cognitive Behaviour) programme. This project aims to provide integrated effective supervisory and mentoring support for 80 offenders.
Approximately £69,000 is being provided to fund a Development Officer scheme. The Development Officer facilitates cross-borough communication and ensures congruence in development of services. A Parent Support Group has been established with a YJB contribution of approximately £43,000. This project offers support and information to parents and carers of young people who
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are behaving in an anti-social or criminal manner. The YOT has supervised 26 Parenting Orders since April 2000 and has received positive feedback from parents attending these groups either voluntarily or as a condition of an order. The YJB are also providing approximately £104,000 to a bail support scheme, being run in partnership with NACRO. This has reduced the rate of re-offending while on bail, while also reducing the numbers of young people remanded into local authority accommodation, or custody.
A functional team within the YOT is dedicated to providing preventative and early intervention services. A multi-agency Risk Management Panel has been established, designed to manage the risks presented to the public by a small number of prolific offenders, through an intelligence led approach. This activity will be supported by the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Project to be launched in July 2001. The YOT has provided and/or co-ordinated a number of crime reduction initiatives including innovative work in schools, alongside police officers, in support of Operation Arrow; the Youth Inclusion Programme in the Elephant and Castle area and Midnight Basketball in partnership with the Youth Service and the National Playing Fields Association. The YOT provides groupwork programmes in schools for disaffected pupils at risk of exclusion and co-ordinates monthly truancy patrols, which have dealt successfully with over 200 truants in the past year.
Easter and Summer Splash Schemes have been run in the following estates: Aylesbury Estate, Rockingham; Astley Cooper estates; Heygate Estate and Peckham. These schemes were set up across England and Wales to address offending by young people (especially 13 to 17-year-olds). The five areas traditionally associated with youth crime--burglary, motor crime, criminal damage, street robbery and juvenile nuisance all showed significant reductions compared with the corresponding period in the previous year. The combined drop for these crimes was 14 per cent.
More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Southwark, North and Bermondsey to a greater or lesser extent. For example:
- 376 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships have been established;
- racial harassment and racially motivated crimes have been made criminal offences by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;
- the asylum backlog has been cut from 103,495 at the end of January 2000 to 49,690 by the end of February 2001; and
- good progress is being made in reducing the incidence of fire deaths in England and Wales. They have dropped from 605 in 1997 to 534 in 1999.
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