'Crime initiatives nearly weekly'

The Conservatives accuse the government of "headline grabbing"

Labour's latest plan to curb anti-social behaviour is the 155th anti-crime initiative published by ministers since June 2001, the Tories say.

As David Blunkett was unveiling a new neighbourhood policing fund and plans to double tagging, the Tories published a dossier to outline their claim.

They say it proves the home secretary's initiatives number nearly one a week.

Tory home affairs spokesman James Paice said the latest announcement was "merely a headline grabbing imitative".

Conservative plans

He added: "It is quite unbelievable that there has been nearly one announcement a week from this government on crime, and still violent crime, gun crime and anti-social behaviour is on the rise.

"The truth is, they have run out of ideas. A Conservative government would recruit an extra 40,000 police officers to combat street crime and target those who are making others' lives hell.

"That's the kind of quantum leap that is needed. Anything else is merely a headline grabbing initiative adding to all the others we have seen more than enough of recently."

The Tory dossier lists announcements by Home Office ministers from shortly after David Blunkett's appointment as home secretary after the 2001 general election.

They include a £15m initiative aimed at improving the security of high street shops in June 2001, through to Monday's announcement when Mr Blunkett pledged to target the 5,000 most prolific repeat offenders.