APPG : Keeping Parliamentarians Informed :
Anti-Social Behaviour

 

Since the last issue of the webmag the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children has held one meeting, on 31 March on Anti-Social Behaviour, at which Louise Casey, Director of the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, spoke.

The Anti-Social Behaviour Unit is a cross-governmental department based in the Home Office. The decision to establish the Unit originated from the Prime Minister’s Civic Society Group. Louise Casey took up the post of Director at the beginning of January, and in addition to the Anti-Social Behaviour White Paper and Bill, the Unit is also involved in work across Government, for example on the Green Paper on Children at Risk, and the draft Housing Bill.

On 12 March the Home Office published a White Paper ‘Respect and Responsibility – Taking a Stand Against Anti-Social Behaviour’
(http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm57/5778/5778.pdf)
which aims to:
• Ensure that people take responsibility for their actions and behave in a way that does not harass or intimidate others
• Provide intervention and support to parents and children whose behaviour is ruining other people’s lives
• Set standards of behaviour within communities, and take swift, effective action against those that breach them
• Make perpetrators of anti-social behaviour accountable for their actions to those they have affected.
•
Some of the measures outlined in the White Paper are being taken forward in the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills.htm), which had its first reading in the House of Commons on 27 March; and also through the Criminal Justice Bill, Fireworks Bill, Courts Bill and the Licensing Bill.

Measures in the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill include:
• The piloting of intensive fostering as an alternative to custody;
• The introduction of Police powers for group dispersal and fast-track child curfews;
• The removal of automatic reporting restrictions on orders made on conviction in a youth court;
• The extension of fixed penalty notices to 16 and 17 year olds;
• The proposed introduction of powers for Local Education Authorities and schools to issue fixed penalty notices to parents of truanting children;
• The introduction of an enabling power for LEAs, schools, and Youth Offending Teams to ask parents to sign a voluntary Parenting Contract;
• The introduction of anti-social behaviour policies for tenants of local authorities, housing action trusts or registered social landlords;
• The introduction of an offence for possession of imitation and air guns in public;
• The introduction of police powers to close premises where drugs are used unlawfully.

On 25 March Louise Casey and Bob Ainsworth MP, Minister of State at the Home Office, gave evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on the subject of anti-social behaviour. The transcript of evidence can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmhaff/568/56801.htm

Forthcoming meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children:
28 April – Children at Risk Green Paper - The Rt Hon Paul Boateng MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
30 April - Three International organisations present their experiences working with orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV and Aids in developing countries (Joint meeting with APPG Aids)
13 May – Children and domestic violence (Joint meeting with APPG Domestic Violence)
21 May – Work-life balance and Childcare – The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP. Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry and Minister for Women (Joint meeting with APPG Childcare)

Please contact Alison Linsey, Joint Clerk to the Group (email: alinsey@ncb.org.uk):

• To be added to the email mailing list to receive minutes and notices of meetings

• For copies of minutes from any of the meetings

• For a free copy of the Group’s report ‘Commitment to Children’

• For a free copy of the Group’s report ‘Commitment to Children’

• For any further information about the Group.