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Drugs: Hemel Hempstead

Volume 489: debated on Tuesday 10 March 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which schemes have received funding under the Communities Against Drugs Initiative in the Hemel Hempstead constituency in each year since 1997; how much was received under each scheme; and what targets were set relating to crime reduction under each scheme. (261180)

The Communities Against Drugs (CAD) initiative was launched in April 2001. It was designed to provide funding to local areas to implement action to tackle local drugs issues. Under the initiative, Dacorum borough council received £108,500 in 2001-02 and in 2002-03.

From 2003-04 CAD funding, the Partnership Development Fund and the Safer Communities Initiative Fund were combined to create the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSC). The BSC was designed to enable local crime and drugs partnerships to take a more flexible approach to the use of funds to reduce crime and other drug-related problems. Under the BSC scheme, Dacorum received £147,372 in 2003-04 and £151,056 in both 2004-05 and 2005-06.

In 2005-06 the BSC fund formed part of the Home Office contribution to the Safer Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF), a joint Communities and Local Government (CLG)-Home Office funding stream aimed at tackling crime, drugs and antisocial behaviour, empowering communities, improving the condition of streets and public spaces and prioritising the most deprived neighbourhoods. SSCF was paid, through CLG, to unitary and top-tier authorities.

From April 2008, SSCF has formed part of the Area Based Grant (ABG). The ABG is paid, through CLG, to local authorities on a three-year basis, in the form of a general non-ringfenced revenue grant, providing local authorities with certainty and flexibility of funding to meet local priorities.