Conclusions and recommendations
1. There are currently at least 10 different
interventions available to anti-social behaviour coordinators
which have been introduced piecemeal over the last ten years all
with different procedures to put them in place. The Home Office
is planning to increase their number further. In
the light of the low take up of some, such as the Individual Support
Order, and the tendency of Anti-Social Behaviour Co-ordinators
to use only a few measures, the Home Office should take stock
of measures already on the statute book, consider whether all
are necessary, and how to make them easier to understand and use
at local level.
2. The lack of published data on the effectiveness
of different measures to combat anti-social behaviour in different
situations or with different groups of people has led to variation
in the extent to which local areas use the interventions available
to them. Decisions are based on local
preferences and the familiarity of those in authority with the
different types of measures, rather than an objective assessment
of what works with different types of perpetrators. Evaluation
of what works is also hampered by the lack of a standard data
set on perpetrators' characteristics. To enhance the effectiveness
of measures to tackle anti-social behaviour the Home Office should:
- develop and implement nationally an evaluation
system to assess the comparative effectiveness of the individual
measures and powers, and the extent to which socio-economic, geographic,
ethnic, and age factors influence the outcomes achieved;
- use the data collected to provide local anti-social
behaviour teams with evidence based recommendations on what works
best in which circumstances; and
- specify a standard data set to be collected by
local antisocial behaviour coordinators, so that all areas
collect information on the use of measures against the same set
of criteria, and in particular separating out data for young children
from those nearing adulthood (where the different causal factors
may apply), and collecting data on warning letters issued, so
as to aid data comparisons and benchmarking.
3. Some 20% of anti-social behaviour cases
reviewed by the National Audit Office received 55% of all interventions
in the period covered by the case review, and people within this
group with criminal convictions had an average of 50 each.
Rigorous enforcement of breaches of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders
is essential to tackle this group together with targeted interventions
aimed at the underlying causes of anti-social behaviour underpinned
by a requirement for individuals to take up support. Where Orders
continue to be breached cases should be prosecuted swiftly and
consideration should be given to referring cases to the Crown
Court for sentencing where a custodial sentence can be considered.
4. The Home Office has encouraged local areas
to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour by the enforcement of measures
such as Anti-Social Behaviour Orders along with support for individuals,
but in recent years, the emphasis has been mainly on enforcement.
To enhance the effectiveness of the response
to anti-social behaviour, both elements are necessary and the
Home Office and the Respect Task Force should:
- work with Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships
to make referrals to family intervention projects and other early
intervention schemes a priority in cases involving children and
young people whose chaotic home life puts them at risk of engaging
in anti-social behaviour;
- collate information from local areas on gaps
in local area service provision, such as access to drug treatment
or mental health services, to inform and action Social Exclusion
Action Plan proposals, due to be published in summer 2007;
- periodically provide local anti-social behaviour
co-ordinators and other community groups with details of diversionary
schemes and award schemes of proven effectiveness used by other
local areas to reward compliance and good behaviour, with a view
to building a unified national self-help, advice and support network
of local leaders who have already delivered successful community
schemes;
- help overcome witnesses' and victims' fear of
intimidation and retaliation by making up to date telephone support
helpline numbers available through anti-social behaviour co-ordinators
and police forces, and build a national support network involving
local communities, the voluntary sector and "Taking a stand"
award winners;
- collect and analyse data to establish whether
local areas have adopted a robust and consistent approach to enforcing
breaches of civil orders, including Anti-Social Behaviour Orders
and Parenting Orders, and whether there are blockages preventing
local areas from dealing with breaches of Orders quickly.
5. The Home Office had not arranged for the
Police National Computer to be updated for notifications of convictions
for crimes committed abroad by UK citizens, allowing a backlog
of some 27,500 cases to build up until updating actions commenced
in 2006. The Police National Computer
is used to check the criminal records of those seeking certain
types of employment, for example those seeking to work with vulnerable
groups. The Department has now reported that the backlog has been
eliminated and that details of all relevant offenders have now
been entered on to the Police National Computer. This process
identified 2,198 individuals who had been involved in the most
serious types of offences or had committed crimes of a sexual
nature. The UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal
Records needs to maintain the momentum of their efforts to trace
offenders, and the Home Office should report regularly on progress
in locating them and referring them to the relevant police forces.
6. The provision of inaccurate data on perceptions
of anti-social behaviour is the latest of several recent examples
by the Home Office of its poor quality information systems and
data. These weaknesses have included those
which led the Comptroller and Auditor General to disclaim an opinion
on the Home Office's Resource Accounts for 2004-05, and the provision
in 2005 and 2006 of inaccurate data on foreign national prisoners.
Without reliable management information the Department can neither
manage its business properly nor account for its stewardship,
and it should develop a detailed Action Plan to improve the quality
and accuracy of its management information and numerical data
and arrange for progress to be audited.
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