Rural Crime
Debate between Lord Davies of Gower and Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate
Lord Davies of Gower (Con)
Again, I thank the noble Lord for that question. I respond with two aspects. First, we have the safer streets fund, which includes funding with a focus on crime prevention in rural areas. We also have the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the National Rural Crime Unit. The Home Office is providing £200,000 in funding for the new National Rural Crime Unit this year. The funding will help to cut crime and keep communities safe by tackling anti-social behaviour and in particular, equipment theft.
Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate (Non-Afl)
My Lords, the problem with rural crime obviously is the lack of witnesses. Those of us who watch programmes such as “Springwatch” and “Autumnwatch” can see the benefits of modern technology in filming things at night. Could the Minister use more of his power to encourage local communities to harness this equipment, even it is not subsidised, to catch these people committing the crime on camera?
Lord Davies of Gower (Con)
Yes, I agree; the noble Lord makes a very fair point. In fact, the Government, through Defra, has awarded £1.2 million in funding across more than 30 councils recently to help with such matters, such as CCTV, and to consult on other reforms.