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Should 'gimmicky' ASBOs be scrapped?
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 South Yorkshire are flouted.
In a major speech, Mrs May said it was "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.
The Home Office yesterday released new figures which showed that 60 per cent of ASBOs served on louts in South Yorkshire were breached between June 2000 and the beginning of last year - compared to an average breach rate of 55 per cent nationally.
This equated to ASBOs being flouted on 779 separate occasions in the region during that period, with each order in South Yorkshire breached on average three times.
The number of orders issued has also already gone down since South Yorkshire magistrates served 104 orders in 2005, but only 47 in 2008.
Speaking at a community centre in London, Mrs May declared it was time to "turn the system on its head".
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," she said.
"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.
Her alternative 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.
But her comments prompted an angry response from Sheffield Brightside MP and former Home Secretary David Blunkett.
He said: "The Home Secretary seems to be operating under a very dangerous delusion - namely, that it is communities who are the cause of anti-social behaviour as well as its victims, rather than individuals and persistently dysfunctional families.
"As soon as I heard her talk about 'criminalising' young people - when an initial ASBO is a civil order - I knew that, sadly, she does not know what she is talking about."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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