To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the future of the safer cities programme.
The programme is making good progress. Four new local projects began operating late last year, and the 16 longer-established ones have between them started or planned a total of 2,205 local crime prevention schemes since 1989, supported by £13.8 million of Home Office grant funding.The programme's evaluation should be completed in the first half of 1993, but at present I am satisfied that the safer cities programme is working well, and should continue in its present form. I have recently informed chairmen of local steering committees for the 16 longer-established projects that they may plan action and commit grant money for an extended period to March 1994.