Crime and security top Government Agenda in The Queen's Speech
23 Nov 2004
The Criminal Justice System will be bolstered by new legislation to reform legal aid and the criminal defence service and there will be a draft bill to tackle juvenile crime through more effective rehabilitation and sentencing.
Speaking about the new legislative programme, Home Secretary David Blunkett said:
"Ensuring security and safety for the individual and community is our over-riding objective and is the common thread in all our proposals today. People are more secure today than seven years ago. Crime is down by 30 per cent. Vehicle crime and burglary has fallen by 40 per cent. And we are enabling local communities up and down the country to tackle the problems and challenges facing them – for themselves, but with our support.
"But fear of crime and insecurity remain too high, partly because the incidence of crime is moving from the impersonal to the personal - in the anti-social behaviour and drink-driven thuggery we see on our streets, or in the unseen but ever present threat from new forms of terrorism.
"The legislative programme set out today addresses these concerns, taking on the challenges of rapid social and economic change and protecting the community and the nation from existing and new threats.
"This is not about the politics of fear, but taking sensible and common-sense measures to protect people. These measures will make communities safer and strengthen democracy. They will enable law-abiding citizens to live free from disorder and crime. By doing so, they will provide the backcloth to progressive policies which offer opportunity and fulfilment in place of insecurity and fear."