Designing out crime in schools, housing and public spaces

A programme of work to develop new and innovative design solutions to help prevent robbery, to crime-proof hot new gadgets and to embed public safety in the design of new public spaces and housing was agreed today by the Home Secretary and the Design and Technology Alliance.

Over the next three years, the UK's top designers will bring together industry, the public sector, designers and crime prevention experts with victims of crime.

Backed by £1.6 million, new design-led ideas will be prototyped and exhibited to showcase the UK's world-class innovation and demonstrate their market potential.

The programme, led by the Design Council, will work on developing solutions to a wide range of crime-related problems, particularly those which affect young people, including:

• Schools - finding and applying specific design solutions to reduce problems such as bullying, fighting and petty theft in schools. This is being led by Sir John Sorrell, Chair of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and the Sorrell Foundation.
• 'Hot' products - developing innovations in technology, services and product design which help make personal electronics more 'crime-proof'. This is being led by Joe McGeehan, Director of the Centre for Communications Research at Bristol University.
• Housing - embedding design-led crime reducing approaches in the planning and construction of housing, led by Ken Pease, a forensic psychologist and visiting professor at University College London.
• Alcohol-related crime - finding design-led approaches to reduce the harm caused by alcohol-related antisocial and criminal behaviour, especially assaults in pubs and clubs. This is being led by Jeremy Myerson, Professor of Design Studies at the Royal College of Art.
• Business crime - such as helping businesses to use design to minimise crimes which victimise them, their customers or employees such as shoplifting and other forms of retail theft. This will be led by Lorraine Gamman, Professor of Design Studies at Central St Martins.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "I want to encourage architects, designers and industry to think about how innovative design solutions can help to reduce and even prevent crimes from occurring in the first place.

"We have worked successfully with the mobile phone industry to make phones less attractive to criminals. I want to see design and technology play a greater role in working to help make spaces, places and gadgets safer.

"By bringing experts from the world of design together with consumers and victims of crime, the Design and Technology Alliance will continue to deliver innovative and practical solutions to real problems."

Design Council Chief Executive David Kester said: "Anticipating and preventing crime is a constant challenge; perhaps even more acute in a changing economic climate.

"That's why we need to bring the best of our creative, technological and entrepreneurial talents together to find new solutions and stay ahead of the game. The Design Council is delighted to be part of driving forward this exciting agenda in partnership with the Home Office."

The Design and Technology Alliance was set up in 2007 to help make crime unattractive and make communities feel safer by generating practical ideas to tackle crime and disorder, based on a thorough understanding of the way criminals work.

Sebastian Conran of Conran & Partners, Chair of the Design and Technology Alliance, said: "This major phase of our work clearly shows that the Home Office has great confidence in the potential of the Designing Out Crime approach.

"The Design and Technology Alliance is a unique collaboration of some of the most experienced and creative minds in the country, and I am looking forward to seeing major positive impacts as a result of our work over the next three years."