Health facts

Health and social care facts

07/01/2007

• 13 per cent of men and 5 per cent of women in London admit to �binge� drinking; this is the lowest level of binge drinking of any region in England, apart from the south east (1)
  
  
• the conception rate for girls aged 15 to 17 was 4.5 per cent in London in 2005, and 5.3 per cent in inner London, above the England average of 4.1 per cent. (2)
  
  
• the total number of �problematic drug users� in London is estimated to be between 71,400 and 81,300 (3)
  
  
• London councils support more than 30,400 residents in local authority, voluntary and private residential care homes; the majority (60 per cent) live in outer London (4)
  
  
• boys born in London in 2005 have a life expectancy of 76.9 years, while girls can expect to live until they are 81.4 years old. Both these figures are slightly above the UK average of 76.6 and 80.9 years respectively (5)
  
  
• life expectancy varies considerably within short distances in London; travelling east from Westminster to Canning Town for example, each stop on the Jubilee Line correlates to approximately one year�s reduction in life expectancy (6)
  
  
• London�s ambulance service responds to an average of almost 2,600 emergency and urgent incidents a day (7)
  
  
• at 22 per cent, London has the lowest proportion of adult smokers of any region in England. The English region with the highest proportion is the north west, where 29 per cent of adults smoke (8)

London Poverty

Poverty facts

07/01/2007

• 51 per cent of children in inner London live in income poverty, compared with 29 per cent in England (1)
  
  
• a quarter of all children in London live in workless households, the highest proportion of any of the English regions. In inner London, one in three children lives in a workless household, compared with one in six nationally (2)
  
  
• in London, seven out of 10 workless households with children are lone parent households (3)
  
  
• there are 244,000 unemployed people in London, more than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together (130,000, 76,000 and 30,000 respectively) (4)
  
  
• one in four children in inner London nursery and primary schools is entitled to free school meals, compared with fewer than one in five nationally (5)
  
  
• more than one in three (35 per cent) children in inner London live in families with at least one adult claiming a key benefit, compared with an average of 18 per cent nationally (6)
  
  
• the proportion of children living in workless households in London has fallen by just one percentage point in the last 10 years, compared with a 4 per cent fall in the UK as a whole (7)
  
  
• 22 per cent of pensioners in London live in income poverty, compared with 17 per cent in the UK as a whole (8)

London crime latest

Crime facts

07/01/2007

• of all the regions in England and Wales, London has the highest level of recorded crime at 124 offences per 1,000 population (1)
  
  
• between 1999 and 2007, overall (police recorded) crime in London fell by 12 per cent, although violent crime increased by 17 per cent over the same period (2)
  
  
• the most commonly reported hate crime in London in 2006/07 was racist crime (9,976 reports), followed by homophobic crime (1,184 incidents) and faith crime (696 incidents) (3)
  
  
• the Metropolitan Police Service employs 30,871 police officers, 13,769 police staff, 400 traffic wardens, 2,308 police community support officers and 1,070 �specials� (4)
  
  
• there are 4.6 uniformed police officers per 1,000 Londoners (5)
  
  
• 54 per cent of Londoners say that crime is one of their top three personal concerns, this rises to 61 per cent for 18-34 year-olds (6)
  
  
• 45 per cent of all recorded robberies in England and Wales in 2006/07 occurred in London (7)
  
  
• the Metropolitan Police Service�s Operation Trident, set up to combat black on black gun crime, seized a total of 917 firearms in 2006/07 (8)

Press release

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg MP announced his Party’s new elderly health care policy on a visit to Age Concern in Kingston upon Thames. He pledged to be the first party to propose an end to the “punishing poverty” that results in the elderly paying for care out of their own pockets. He said increased funding for elderly care would end the "scandalous injustice" of older people using their savings to pay for necessary care.

His choice of location, though, seemed to be a cruel joke. In 2007 Lib Dem led Kingston upon Thames Borough Council slashed their eligibility criteria for adult social care services by half, leaving many elderly to have to fund essential basic care through other means. In the same year, they closed Hobkirk House elderly day care centre despite months of pleas, protests and a petition of thousands of signatures from the Conservative Councillors and elderly users of the centre. Last year they also allowed Kingston Primary Care Trust to cut Fuchsias dementia care ward and Springboard - a unique learning centre for adults with learning disabilities. The same Lib Dem Administration also increased charges and introduced means testing for elderly and disabled domiciliary care in 2005.

The Leader of the Opposition on the Royal Borough of Kingston Council, Conservative Councilor Howard Jones said: “This is just another tiresome example of the Liberal Democrats being all bark and no bite. For their Leader to come to our Borough and lecture us on healthcare when their own Liberal Democrat Administration have been the epitome of showing the elderly in our community the ‘scandalous neglect’ that Nick Clegg is preaching about, it is ignorant and irresponsible. A refreshing idea for the Liberal Democrats would be for them to know what is going on within their own Party.”

At It again

Ministers accused over 'bin tax' exemption

By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
Last Updated: 2:47am GMT 11/01/2008

MPs will not have to pay controversial new "bin taxes" to be introduced later this year, prompting accusations that Government ministers are guilty of double standards.

The deputy leader of the Commons, Helen Goodman, yesterday revealed that MPs would be able to claim the bin taxes as part of their taxpayer-funded system of perks.

Over the next few months, local authorities will be able to begin charging residents for removing waste.

The scheme has been advocated as a way of boosting recycling rates and environment ministers have repeatedly denied the charges were simply a new stealth tax.

However, the Treasury confirmed that the new charges - which could add £100 to a family's annual outgoings - were technically considered to be a "tax".

Eric Pickles, the Conservative shadow local government minister, said: "Even the Treasury now admits that the new charges are nothing less than a new tax.

"Ministers are looking to impose a tax on hard-working families that they themselves won't have to pay."