By Laura Moulden
MPs have called for a national standard on anti-social behaviour to be introduced.
Published on Friday (February 15th) the Home Affairs Committee report on the draft Anti-social Behaviour Bill urged the government to create a new national forum on the issue, headed by a local council leader, chief constable and housing association chief executive.
It also called on policymakers to end the “arms race” against anti-social behaviour by implementing “reasonable limits” on the behaviour covered by new powers.
Chair of the committee Keith Vaz MP claimed that recent cases have highlighted the seriousness of this type of crime.
“Anti-social behaviour is not something trivial that can be ignored—it can crush lives and breed criminality in our communities,” he said.
“The Home Affairs Select Committee welcomes the work the Government is doing to speed up action on ASB, but we need a powerful trigger in place to make a decisive change.”
According to the body, a number of key elements necessary in tackling anti-social behaviour are currently missing, including inter-agency collaboration and information sharing.
It also claimed the range of powers in responding to such offenses are “far too wide”, but welcomed the move away from automatic criminalisation when injunctions are breached.
