The Government has published its long-awaited draft Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny
The Bill follows the government’s ASB white paper published in May this year, which committed to overhauling existing ASB powers, to give greater priority to victims and empower communities to find local solutions to local problems.
The Bill slashes the wide range of powers currently available from 19 to six:
- the ‘ASB toolkit’, comprising three simplified and less bureaucratic powers to tackle ASB:
- Criminal Behaviour Orders that can be attached to a criminal conviction
- Crime Prevention Injunctions with a civil standard of proof (i.e. on the balance of probabilities)
- Dispersal Powers, consolidating a number of existing police powers.
- three new powers to deal with environmental ASB and public nuisance:
- Community Protection Notices to stop persistent, unreasonable behaviour that is detrimental to the amenity of the locality or is having a negative impact on the local community’s quality of life
- Community Protection Orders (Public Space) placing local restrictions to address a range of ASB issues in public places, and prevent future problems
- Community Protection Order (Closure) to protect victims quickly by issuing an order to temporarily close any property for up to 48 hours if there is a public nuisance or if there is likely to be disorder imminently.
The Bill also introduces two new measures to help focus the response to ASB on the needs of victims.
The Community Trigger will give victims and communities the right to require agencies to deal with persistent ASB that has previously been ignored. The trigger could be activated by a member of the public, a community or a business if repeated complaints about ASB have been ignored. This measures, first announced in February 2011, is currently being piloted in Manchester, Brighton and Hove, West Lindsey and the London Borough of Richmond.
The Community Remedy will allow police and crime commissioners (or the relevant local policing body) to give victims of low-level crime (such as low-level criminal damage and low-value thefts) and antisocial behaviour a say in the punishment of offenders out of court. The types of punishments which could feature on a remedy menu include:
- the offender signing an acceptable behaviour contract;
- participation in structured activities such as alcohol or drug treatment;
- mediation – for example, to resolve a neighbour dispute;
- paying compensation to the victim (for example for any damage caused);
- reparation to the victim (for example repairing damage or cleaning graffiti off a wall);
- reparation to the community (for example by doing local unpaid work for up to 10 hours).
- If offenders do not agree to the community remedy then civil, or in some cases, criminal sanctions might be pursued.
Finally, the Bill introduces new powers to speed up eviction for serious ASB.
- A new absolute ground for possession for ASBwhich landlords may choose to use in preference to the existing discretionary ground where:
- the tenant, member of their household or visitor to the property has been convicted of a serious housing related offence, breach of an order or notice to abate noise, or breach of a criminal behaviour order;
- the tenant, member of their household or visitor to the property has been found by a court to have breached an injunction to prevent nuisance or annoyance;
- the tenant’s property has been closed for more than 48 hours under a closure order.
- Provisions to enable a landlord to apply for possession where the tenant or a person living in the tenant’s property has been convicted of an offence committed during and at the scene of a riot which took place anywhere in the UK. This will enable the court to grant possession even if the anti-social behaviour did not occur in the locality of the dwelling-house.
Thanks to Housemark for this useful summary