May to bring in right to force authorities to take action over anti-social behaviour
Victims and communities will be given the right to force authorities to take action on anti-social behaviour where they have failed to do so, the Home Secretary told the Conservative Party conference this week.
Theresa May also promised to “tear up Labour’s disastrous Licensing Act”.
In relation to anti-social behaviour, the minister said the government would “bring some sanity to the alphabet soup of police powers Labour invented”.
The previous administration “week after week…. announced initiative after initiative to deal with anti-social behaviour”, she claimed adding that “the result was lots of headlines, but a sanctions regime so cluttered and complicated that it doesn’t just confuse the perpetrators and victims, but police officers themselves”.
The Home Secretary said the government would soon produce an alternative sanctions regime “that is consolidated and clear; that offers restorative justice where appropriate and tougher punishments where necessary; that acts as a real deterrent to criminality; and – unlike Labour’s ASBOs – provides meaningful penalties when they are breached”.
May also insisted that the new regime would give real redress to victims let down by the system. The right to force authorities to take action would help those who are “passed from pillar to post”, she said.
The Home Secretary also argued that the term “anti-social behaviour” did not adequately describe offences such as vandalism and low-level thuggery. Instead, she said, the description should be “crime and disorder” and the police will be instructed to deal with it on that basis.
“Crime is crime, however it’s categorised in the figures – and the public expect us to fight it,” May said.
Legislation will be introduced to make the police more accountable to local people, rather than Whitehall. This would include requiring the police to: publish detailed, street-level crime statistics; hold regular beat meetings with local residents; and answer, from May 2012, to the new breed of elected police and crime commissioners.
The Home Secretary unveiled the appointment of Baroness Newlove – whose husband was murdered after standing up to vandals – as government champion for active safer communities.
May said the government would tackle the central role alcohol plays in anti-social behaviour, criminality and violence.
Following the completion of the consultation on reforming the Licensing Act 2003, the Home Secretary confirmed that:
- Local people would be given more control over pubs, clubs and other licensed venues
- Councils would be able to charge more for late-night licences to allow them to spend more on late-night policing
- The fine for under-age sales would be doubled and shops and bars that persistently sell alcohol to children would be shut down, and
- The below-cost sale of alcohol would be banned.
May said she had opposed 24-hour licensing when Shadow Culture Secretary, and said it gave her “great satisfaction to have the chance to undo it”.
