Message from Jacqui Smith

I attended the first National Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP)/ Community Safety Partnership (CSP) conference on 12 and 13 May at Stamford Bridge football ground.
Together with the Prime Minister, I launched an update, 'Cutting Crime: Two Years On' to the existing crime strategy, 'Cutting Crime: A New Partnership 2008-11'.

Since 1997 overall crime has dropped by nearly 40 per cent and we continue to deliver on our vision of communities where people feel confident to live their lives, free from fear of crime and antisocial behaviour. This has been delivered through the hard work and dedication of professionals and volunteers up and down the country. It is by working together that we have been able to act decisively in the face of challenges such as knife crime and gang-related violence.

We are facing new challenges, particularly the challenge of tougher economic times, and I am determined, when people are feeling less secure financially, that we will do everything in our power to protect their safety and security.

We have significantly developed our thinking over the past two years in key areas such as what makes the public confident about tackling crime. This is why we have published an updated crime strategy, to ensure that the approaches take account of progress made over the past two years, and are focused and relevant to the current environment. The new approaches are intended to inform partnership planning over the next planning cycle and include:

• taking early action to prevent crime
  
  
• turning the tables on offenders
  
  
• delivering responsive, visible justice
  
  
• putting the public in the driving seat
  
  
• taking action at the right level
  
  

In his speech at the conference, the Prime Minister also announced:

• A new programme tackling serious property-related crimes - such as burglary, robbery and car theft. This programme will target interventions in areas where emerging problems are identified to prevent them from becoming entrenched. Operation Vigilance will include a £3m scheme piloted in these priority areas will intensify the targeting and management of known offenders, helping police, the national probation service, and local authorities to learn from what works and how to use more proactive methods to target and catch offenders.
  
  
• The first virtual courts pilot to ensure a speedier and more efficient justice system for all - cases could be heard at a magistrates' court via a secure video link from the police station within four hours of a defendant being charged. If successful, this could cut costs by £10m a year, free up police and magistrates' court's time and improve the service given to victims and witnesses.

To support our CDRPs/CSPs the Home Office also launched:

• The National Support Framework for partnerships, including specific support products.
  
  
• 'A Passport to Evaluation' - a publication on how to measure crime reduction initiatives.
  
  
• A communication support package 'Communicating for Confidence', intended to support front line delivery partners such as CDRP/CSPs, neighbourhood policing teams, drug and alcohol action teams, with evidence and practical advice on building public confidence in the work being done to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour via communications.
  
  
• An effective practice compendium - showcasing how partnerships have embraced the new partnership regulations and hallmarks.

Message from James Hall, Chief Executive Identity and Passport Service

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has moved a step closer to issuing identity cards with the announcement that Greater Manchester will be the first area where identity cards will be available to the general population in the UK and with the introduction of a new website where people can register their interest in applying for an identity card.

In a speech to business leaders in London on 6 May the Home Secretary announced Greater Manchester as the first location as part of a staged roll-out for the National Identity Service across the UK, where we can build up card coverage and technological capabilities in tandem.

A new online facility gives UK residents who want to be among the first to get an identity card the opportunity to register their interest.
This website, on Directgov, represents the first stage in the delivery of voluntary identity cards to UK citizens. The site has all the information needed to find out how and when you can get an identity card, as well as how you can protect yourself from identity theft.

We believe that the best way to help people apply for an identity card or passport conveniently and effectively is for trusted high street businesses to offer their customers the ability to record their fingerprints and facial photographs.
We are now working with a number of organisations interested in taking discussions on this to the next level - including the Post Office, the National Pharmacy Association and Photo Marketing Association International. In addition we are talking to local government bodies about how they can work with us to enhance services to customers. Creating a competitive market through high street outlets will deliver a simple, straightforward and competitive service for customers.

The latest progress and cost reports on the National Identity Service show that we are running on time and on budget. The reports also refer to the two major contracts we recently signed with CSC and IBM, which will modernise our passport application process and create a new, secure database for storing facial and fingerprint images.
Those contracts - together worth £650m - represent the latest stage of a £4.7bn programme to deliver the National Identity Service over the next 10 years and bring the large-scale deployment of identity cards a step closer.
The National Identity Service will bring real benefits to people in their everyday lives, making it easier for them to access goods and services as well as protect themselves against identity theft and fraud. Further information on the National Identity Service can be found at http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity
We will continue to keep you updated on developments, and my colleagues and I look forward to working even more closely with you in the future.'

Current Business at the Home Office

• On 13 May, the Home Secretary launched a consultation on a new mandatory code on alcohol sales. It is designed to tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder and harm to health, which costs the UK up to £13bn annually. The code takes a two-tiered approach, with a small number of mandatory conditions for all alcohol retailers. This will ensure consistent good practice alongside new discretionary powers for local authorities to tackle problem premises. The proposed mandatory code includes banning promotions such as 'all you can drink for £10'; ensuring all venues offer single or double measures of spirits, and large or small glasses of wine, so customers have a choice; and requiring alcohol retailers to display information about the unit content of drinks and, for supermarkets and convenience stores, the health impacts of alcohol under powers from the Food Safety Act.
  
  
• On 13 May, the Home Secretary and Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced a new taskforce of health professionals to work together to spot early signs of violence and abuse against women and girls, investigate the scale of the problem across the NHS and ensure victims get the support they need. The taskforce responds to issues raised during the Violence against Women and Girls consultation, which began in March. The government recognises that victims may talk more freely with health professionals about their fear of violence - even when they are not ready to take the next step of reporting the crime. The taskforce will also look at helping health workers identify women at risk earlier and how they can offer these women support to reduce repeat victimisation
  
  
• The Home Secretary met US Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington earlier this year and was delighted to welcome him to the Home Office last month. It gave both of them the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues, such as preventing terrorism, tackling the drugs trade and cutting international organised crime, as part of the important ongoing dialogue between the two countries.
  
  
• On 8 May, the Home Secretary announced the appointment of Chief Inspector Denis O'Connor as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary. Mr O'Connor was identified after a rigorous selection process, validated by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The post became vacant after the retirement of Sir Ronnie Flanagan last year.
  
  
• New proposals to reassure the public that the right people are kept on the DNA database were outlined by the Home Secretary on 7 May. DNA and the use of forensics play an essential role in fighting crime and providing justice for victims. A public consultation - Keeping the right people on the DNA database - intends to promote public debate on how long we should retain fingerprints and DNA. It sets out the benefits of DNA and fingerprints in detecting offenders and helping to bring them to justice. It also sets out proposals to introduce clearer and more transparent safeguards for the individual. It aims to provide a proportionate balance between protecting communities and protecting the rights of the individual.
  
  
• On 21 April, Home Office minister Alan Campbell launched the Drugs Strategy: One Year On booklet, which sets out the significant progress made since the launch of the drug strategy in 2008. It has been published on the drugs.gov website and was circulated to key stakeholders and delivery partners to support their communication and engagement activity.
  
  
• The counter-terrorism CONTEST 2009 launch continues with a stakeholder outreach programme. Key stakeholders and delivery partners will be contacted over the coming months to discuss CONTEST and the delivery of the strategy in more detail. If you have any events coming up where you would like a presentation, or a detailed discussion about CONTEST, to feature, please contact Victoria Busby.
  
  
• The UK Border Agency is working with the Refugee Council and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to promote Refugee Week, which runs from 15 to 21 June. This UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events celebrates the contribution of refugees to the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities. Watch out for the YouTube clip on the work of UK Border Agency and its external partners.
  
  
• To help the increasing number of foreign nationals who have to enrol their biometrics when they apply to extend their stay in the United Kingdom, the UK Border Agency is setting up new biometric enrolment facilities around the country. Since November 2008, we have been issuing identity cards to foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area who have applied to extend their stay here as spouses, partners, students, or dependants. In March 2009, we expanded the scheme to further categories of applicants. Enrolment continues to be by appointment only at all of the sites.
  
  
• Information on travellers to and from the United Kingdom started flowing into the e-Borders system on 15 May. A significant milestone for the UK Border Agency, e-Borders is part of what the agency is doing to ensure greater security, effectiveness and efficiency at our borders. Using the latest electronic technology, passengers and crew will be pre-screened before they cross the border - and counted in and out. It will enable the agency to address the increasing concerns regarding illegal immigration, border crime and national security.
  
  

Good Practice Projects

• A project that sees offenders carrying out intensive community payback work in Liverpool to make recompense for their crimes was visited by the government's crime and justice adviser, Louise Casey, on 22 April. The new scheme sees offenders sentenced at the North Liverpool community justice centre work five days a week on the same project, producing direct benefits for local people. Ms Casey saw offenders carrying out tough work and said: 'The public want to know that criminals are made to pay back for their crimes.' Community payback involves offenders doing demanding physical work which also helps improve the local area.
  
  
• Home Office minister Alan Campbell visited Snowshill Estate in Newham (East London) at the end of April, once plagued by antisocial behaviour. It has been turned around through innovative partnership work involving the local authority, neighbourhood policing teams, businesses and local residents with the help of government funding. Newham Council's antisocial behaviour hotline has shown an overall fall in crime in Newham, with latest figures showing a 12.6 per cent drop in the last six years.
  
  
• The Dudley Target Hardening Partnership in the West Midlands is tackling the issue of burglary through a 'target hardening scheme', which has attracted £100,000 of Home Office (Neighbourhood Partnership & Performance Fund) funding. The project identified 100 properties, with the help of Victim Support, that were first-time or repeat victims of burglaries involving forced entry, in a street that had multiple victims of burglary. The scheme pays for the installation and monitoring of the alarms by a private company for three years. At the end of this time, the recipients can either pay the cost of the monitoring themselves (at £25 per month) or keep the alarm, but without it being monitored. To date there have been no repeat burglaries among the properties assisted.

Other Government Business

• The 2009 Justice Awards campaign is under way, with staff and volunteers across the criminal justice system being urged to get involved by nominating individuals and teams who have 'gone the extra mile' in their work with victims, witnesses, defendants, offenders and communities. The Home Secretary, who attended last year's awards ceremony, said, 'Staff at the frontline are often the unsung heroes of the criminal justice system. Through the Justice Awards we have the opportunity to recognise and celebrate the outstanding work that is bringing justice to the heart of our communities.' The nomination period runs until 27 July and the awards ceremony takes place on 20 October during Inside Justice Week.
  
  
• The 'Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice' green paper has recently been published. In it, the government sets out a vision of a criminal justice service 'that is effective, delivers justice for all, has the interests of victims and witnesses at its heart and which inspires the trust and confidence of the people it serves'. Some of the core proposals are:
  - the introduction of community prosecutors to increase understanding of community concerns and to reflect those concerns when making case decisions;
  - feeding local community views directly into the justice process through community impact statements to ensure they are more visible to crime and justice service providers, and demonstrating how these views were used;
  - giving local people a say in the type of work that should be undertaken as community payback through citizens' panels;
  - extending community justice principles to more areas, using innovative, partially co-located or virtual problem-solving teams, which would come together to work on suitable cases in their area; and
  - establishing a network of community engagement leads located in local criminal justice boards to pull together information and community engagement activity, and better support neighbourhood policing, so that people know when, where and how they can engage with criminal justice services in their area.
  
  Responses to the consultation, Engaging Communities in Criminal Justice, which can be made online or by email or post, should be submitted by Friday 31 July 2009.

Consultations

• Further to the two public consultations running until July and announced to you in last month's email, the office for security and counter-terrorism has also launched a further consultation, to run for 12 weeks, to obtain views on how we should be 'Protecting the Public in a Changing Communications Environment'. The cross-government interception modernisation programme (led by the Home Office) has been looking at how we can maintain our access to communications data (the 'who, when and where' of a communication, but not the content) in the face of rapidly changing technology. The programme has been working closely with the UK's law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies to research and identify possible options that will maintain the UK's communications data capabilities. The consultation, launched on 27 April, invites the public's views on the need to maintain these capabilities and on possible options for achieving this. It sets out the importance of communications data in protecting the public. It then discusses the emerging problems caused by the advances in new technologies and the impact of any potential capability gaps, and describes possible solutions. Throughout the document, the importance of safeguards to protect the individual's right to privacy is emphasised.
  
  
• A list of all current Home Office consultations is available from the Home Office website.
  
  
• UK Border Agency (UKBA) consultations are available from the UKBA website.
  
  
• The Home Office is carrying out some research on its websites, and would like to talk to some of the people who use them. Volunteers who use the Home Office website are required to attend focus groups being held in the next few weeks.

Contact us

If you're having difficulty contacting the appropriate part of the Home Office relating to your area of practice, the corporate communication unit may be able to help.

If your query relates to immigration, asylum, Home Office research and statistics, identity cards, passports, or visas, you should contact the appropriate area directly via its own website in the first instance.

If, however, you are still having difficulty making contact with the Home Office, then please feel free to email the corporate communication unit or phone: 020 7035 6525.