Written question asked by Geraldine Smith (Labour) on Wednesday, 12 March 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 14 March 2008. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Tuesday, 25 March 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Burglary: Lancashire

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to reduce burglaries in Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency.

Answer: The Home Office has encouraged the development, dissemination and implementation of a range of good practice in reducing burglary, including work under the Reducing Burglary Initiative.In the Northern Division of Lancashire Constabulary, which covers Morecambe and Lunesdale, there is a dual approach to burglary, with prevention and education work combined with detection. Examples of prevention and education work include the Tower project, which is a project that aims to support criminals with substance misuse problems into moving away from criminal activity; and partnership approaches such as Police and Communities Together meetings and Neighbourhood Watch. The detection approach includes pro-active burglary teams, dedicated investigators, robust tasking and accountability process. Crime scene investigators visit all domestic burglary scenes, and there is a scheme in place to tackle repeat burglaries.Lancashire police have also adopted Neighbourhood Policing, this means named officers patrol the area as part of a regular patch, based on ward boundaries. This is underpinned by an intelligence led and problem-solving approach to burglary.

Secondary information