3rd April 2006

Thank you for coming to visit me with your petition earlier this month. The death of your brother must have been a terrible experience and I greatly admire your strength in campaigning for safer streets in Taunton, a campaign which has attracted such impressive support and is a tribute to the memory of Lloyd.

You raised a number of points at our meeting and we had some discussion about government policies to tackle crime, provide support to victims and witnesses and tackle offenders. Whilst we do not have any plans at the present to implement your specific proposal, we do have a wide range of measures in place to tackle violent crime and to ensure that people are properly punished for their actions.

In February 2006, the Government published 'A Five Year Strategy for Protecting the Public and Reducing Re-Offending' (available at www.noms.homeoffice.gov.uk/downloads/5-year-strategy.pdf). This set out the government's continuing support for the use of community sentences which are both demanding and increasingly well-enforced. They are available to deal with offenders for whom a prison sentence is not the right responce. A court may impose a community sentence on any offender who has been convicted of a criminal offence, where it judges that the offence is serious enough to warrant such a sentence.

The community sentence is often percieved by people as a soft option but, if carried out effectively, can be tougher than prison. It combines punishment with changing offenders' behaviour and making amends. It can also encourage the offender to deal with the causes of their criminal behaviour. It is vital, of course, that breaches of the order are well-inforced.

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 replaced all existing community penalties with a single Community Order. This can include up to twelve different requirements, including unpaid work, drug treatment and curfews.

Community Orders also allow to offenders to maintain employment, education and family links, all factors which are important in reducing the risk of reoffending, while punishing the offender and delivering interventions to address their offending behaviour.

We also discussed some the steps the Government is taking to reduce violent crime. In terms of legislation, the Violant Crime Reduction Bill is currently being considered be the House of Lords. This contains a number of new measures to tackle binge and under-age drinking. They include plans for Alcohol Disorder Zones to recover the cost of policing from pubs and clubs which cause the most disorder; powers to close premises for 48 hours for persistently selling alcohol to people under the age of 18; 48-hour exclusions from designated areas for persons issued with fixed penalty notices for disorder; Drinking Banning Orders which can ban troublesome individuals from drinking in certain establishments or in designated areas; and a review of the licences of licenced premises which can require "at risk" pubs and clubs to search for offensive weapons on entry and to use safer, toughened drinking glasses and bottles.

Alcohol is a contributing factor in approximately half of all violant crime, and in addition to the measures outlined above the Government has introduced Alcohol Reduction Strategy, one of the objectives of which is using more effective inforcement to tackle alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour. Four inforcement campaingnes against alcohol-fuelled disorder and underage drinking have been conducted since, during which polce and partners have visited over 61,000 licenced premises, carried out "sting" operations in over 2,800 of these, issued some 8,000 fixed penalty notices for some than 6,000 adults and juveniles. The most recent of these was timed to coinside with the introducion of the Licencing Act, and provisional figures show that violant crime was down by 11% in the last three months, from October to December, compared with the same period last year.

The Violant Crime Reduction Bill also contains proposed measures that ban the manufacture or sale of realistic imitation guns, and increased penalties and introduce new offenses relating to carrying them. It raises the age of which knives can be bought from 16 to 18, and gives head teachers the power to search pupils for knives. The Government also introduced tough new laws to deter people from carrying real guns, and since January 2004 anyone convicted of possession of an illegal weapon will be sent to jail to a minimum of 5 years. Previously they were only sent to jail for an average of 18 months. Last year we ran a hard-hitting poster campaign to raise awareness of this law among young people in those areas most affected by gun crime.

I agree that local policing needs to be strengthened and a Neighbourhood Policing Programme is curently being rolled out across the country. The Government is committed to ensuring that, by 2008, every area in England and Wales will benifit from the presence of a dedicated neighbourhood policing team. These teams will include police officers and Community Support Officers working with Specials, wardens and other members of the extended police family. This commitment was further stregthened in last weeks budget with a pledge for 16,000 community support officers by this time next year.

We understand that people want and need to feel safer. Under our proposals they will have access to policing services through a named point of contact and will have influence over policing priorities in their neighbourhood devising and delivering interventions to tackle local issues. Finally, communities will get answers to the questions that they have been asking their local police service to resolve for them; answers in the form of ongoing feedback and sustainable sollutions to local problems.

Thank you again for coming to see me. If you have any further questions on the measures outlined above then please contact me again.

Paul Goggins
Parliamentary under secretary of state

Letter from the Home Office