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Home Secretary signals end of Asbos
Home Secretary Theresa May has signalled the end of anti-social behaviour orders after new figures revealed that six out of 10 of those slapped on yobs in West Yorkshire are flouted.
In a major speech, Mrs May said it is "time to move beyond" ASBOs and get rid of what she branded the former Labour government's "gimmick-laden approach" to tackling anti-social behaviour.
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The Home Office yesterday released new figures which showed that 62 per cent of ASBOs served on louts in West Yorkshire were breached between June 2000 and the beginning of last year - compared to an average breach rate of 55 per cent nationally.
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ASBOs were breached on 3,547 separate occasions in West Yorkshire during that period - the second highest total number of breaches in England and Wales after Greater Manchester on 4,794.
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A total of 581 ASBOs were breached more than once.
The enthusiasm of courts in West Yorkshire to use the orders already seems to have dimmed - the region's magistrates served 305 in 2004 and 130 in 2008.
Speaking at a community centre in London, Mrs May declared that it was
now time to "turn the system on its head".
She said: "For 13 years, politicians told us that the government had the answer; that the ASBO was the silver bullet that would cure all society's ills.
"It wasn't. Life is more complex than that."
She said there is no "magic Whitehall lever we can pull simply to stop anti-social behaviour" and "no magic button to press or tap to turn to stop the flow of misery".
"The solution to your community's problems will not come from officials sitting in the Home Office working on the latest national action plan.
"They will come from the homes of our citizens, from the heads of our police officers, council employees and housing associations, and from the hearts of our social workers," she said.
But her comments prompted a furious response from Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn.
He said: "Theresa May is out of touch. While ASBOs can't solve every problem, we have seen in Leeds how they do give local communities a means of dealing with behaviour that can blight their lives.
"And far from being a gimmick imposed from Whitehall, they are a really good example of Government listening to what local people want and
giving it to them.
"Getting rid of them would take us backwards in the fight against anti-social behaviour."
Mrs May said she had drawn up an alternative blueprint to deal with the "root causes" of bad behaviour.
Her proposals include incentives for unemployed people to make work pay, regaining discipline in schools by putting teachers back in control of classrooms and encouraging young people to take responsibility through National Citizen Service.
The Home Secretary pinpointed booze-related violence and binge drinking as the "one over-riding problem that contributes more to violent crime and anti-social behaviour than anything else".
She said the late night drinking laws would be reformed giving "local people have greater control over pubs, clubs and other licensed premises".
Councils will be able to charge more for late-night licences, which they can plough back into late-night policing, and the fine for under-age sales will be doubled.
The below cost sale of alcohol is also being banned and authorities will be able to permanently shut down any shop or bar that persistently sells alcohol to children.
ASBOs were introduced by the last government to deal with persistent minor offenders and impose restrictions, such as banning people from a local area or preventing them from swearing in public.
Breaching an ASBO is a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in jail.
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Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
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