Rugby Liberal Democrats

Strengthening powers to tackle anti-social behaviour

Strengthening powers to tackle anti-social behaviour

Your Liberal Democrat councillors on Warwickshire County Council, and Liz Lynn, your Liberal Democrat MEP, are seeking local input on the proposals by the Home Office to strengthen the powers of the Local Authorities to tackle anti Social Behaviour.

Please let us have your comments on the proposals to info@rugbylibdems.org.uk by the end of January 2007.

The following is a summary of the Consultation Paper (See below for details of the full paper):

Building on the Respect Action Plan this paper proposes new front line powers (out of court action) to tackle anti-social behaviour for police officers and local authorities (District and Borough). The proposed measurers will apply equally to both adults and juvenile perpetrators of ASB and will be used proportionally and appropriately depending on the individual's circumstances and the needs of the community as judged by the officer in conjunction, in the case of juveniles, with their parents or legal guardian.

Deferred Penalty Notice for Disorder (DPND)

Penalty Notice for Disorder (PND's) - financial penalties of £50 or £80, are already available to the police and it is planned to increase this to £100. The proposed Deferred Penalty Notice for Disorder (DPND) allows the option to defer payment for a period of three to six months if the offender agrees to a set of conditions. If the offender fulfils this agreement at the end of the period the original offence can be discharged and no payment will be required.

PND's are applicable to both adults and young people but in the case of a juvenile the police would have to draw the incident to the attention of the parent or legal guardian and agree the conditions, in the form of an ABC (Acceptable Behaviour Contract) in their presence. If the young person is aged between 10 and 15 years the responsible parent/guardian would have to agree to be liable for payment if the DPND is breached. The Youth Offending Team (YOT) and other relevant agencies would also have to be notified by the police officer.

Premises Closure Orders

Existing powers are in place to tackle anti-social activity around property including; supply and use of class A drugs, public noise nuisance and noise nuisance from licensed premises. The new Premises Closure Order (England and Wales only) proposes to widen this to include other forms of anti-social behaviour including; excessive noise and rowdy behaviour with frequent drunken parties, large numbers of people entering and leaving premises at all times of the day or night, anti-social residents intimidating and threatening their neighbours, and criminals running illegal business from their premises.

This is a very powerful tool and one that should only be considered as a last resort when other earlier measurers are deemed to have failed. This is especially so if children and vulnerable adults are living in the household. Before a Premises Closure Order is applied for it would be required to show that ASBO's and injunctions had failed and that the needs of all the members of the household had been considered. The Premises Closure Notice would only be authorised by an experience police officer, not below the rank of superintendent, and must include consultation with all relevant local authorities on the impact of the Order to all members of the household.

Strengthening existing tools and measures

The consultation paper includes proposals to remove conflicting police targets and recognise on-street reparation in police performance measures. With the latter immediate informal on street reparation by police officers could be counted towards police targets providing that the offence is a minor misdemeanour by a young person.

If this was formally recognised it could include offences covered by the PND providing it was possible and practicable, or else a Fixed Penalty would be applied. However, the paper also recognises that Penalty Notices fail with chaotic individuals and alternatives should be considered - such as a requirement to get assessed for substance misuse help.

There are new plans to deal with some breaches of court orders by increasing the offender's punishment without having to go back to court. Responses to this are invited through the Governments sentencing document 'Making Sentencing Clearer' Home Office (2006). There are also plans to reinforce parental responsibility by making the parent responsible for the payment of Penalty Notices if the juvenile does not pay. This is linked to the PND's and also Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN's)

Summary

This is very clearly aimed at front line police officers (including Neighbourhood Policing) and in some cases housing officers and other involved with enforcing local bylaws. It requires the 'Officers' to exercise judgement and mentions possible training for this. The implications for the County Council are limited on the enforcement side, but will have an impact for our front line services as the target group and their families may already be known to them, namely CYPF - YOT, PAYP and the Youth Service.

. The Full Document is available at:

www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-asb-powers/asb-powers-consultation