Lancashire Strategic Assessment Executive Summary

Introduction

Under the Police and Justice Act (2006), Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP) are required to produce an annual strategic assessment which identifies the priorities they will tackle over the next 3 years.

In Lancashire, we produce a county-wide strategic assessment, to identify those community safety issues which do not respect borders and may be organised better at county level and to identify where efficiency savings can be made by partnerships acting in a co-ordinated manner.

These issues are then addressed through the county Community Safety Agreement. This is the second such assessment.

Priorities

The strategic assessment analysis identified 11 key issues. The Safer Lancashire Board has agreed that the following four issues will be priority areas for them to focus on in 2010/11. Concentration on activity in these areas will have a significant impact on increasing confidence, reducing fear of crime and reducing reoffending.

Alcohol Abuse

Analysis shows that Lancashire has a worse problem with alcohol abuse than other parts of the UK. This problem is getting worse and affects many aspects of community safety: for example, anti-social behaviour, road safety, fire safety and violent crime. It is a key driver for offending behaviour. This issue is high on all partners'' agendas.

Domestic Abuse

All partners have raised Domestic Abuse as an issue in their strategies. Incidents of domestic abuse in Lancashire are higher than their most similar group average. The direction of travel is increasing, but this might be due to improved confidence in reporting than an increase in the amount of domestic violence. Reporting to other organisations, such as voluntary sector helplines, has stayed stable. Victims are not just adult, children in abusive relationships also suffer considerable harm.

Anti-Social Behaviour

Although all indicators suggest that anti-social behaviour is becoming less of a problem in Lancashire, the Safer Lancashire Board has decided to make anti-social behaviour a priority for the next year because of the impact it has on confidence and its high profile at national level. East Lancashire and Preston are the areas within the county which have most issues around anti-social behaviour. Rowdy and inconsiderate behaviour is the aspect of anti-social behaviour most complained about.

Road Safety

Despite considerable improvements in road safety in the county over the last four years, the Safer Lancashire Board has decided to focus on road safety because Lancashire is still in the bottom quartile for killed and seriously injured in the country. Lancaster had the highest number of fatalities with motorbike collisions a particular issue. Preston had the highest number of people seriously injured in road traffic accidents.

Further details can be downloaded here.