The National Audit Office said on Wednesday that Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Community Safety Partnerships and police basic command units had helped to cut crime by 22% since 1999.

The Home Office has spent £927m funding these initiatives in the past five years.

However, the NAO added that the Home Office could cut crime further by reducing the administrative burden on local partnerships to make more money available for crime prevention initiatives.

Half of the projects examined by the NAO were delayed by up to a year.

“This was partly a result of late notification and distribution of funding from the Home Office,” the NAO said.

The NAO added that delays were caused by problems recruiting and retaining enough skilled staff.

Only 44 of the 72 projects examined had “specific, measurable and realistic targets”.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Read the report at www.nao.org.uk