Facilitated by

1. Facilitated by Anti-Social Behaviour – Tools and powers Thursday 29th November 2012

2. Facilitated by Welcome Sian Chambers, Head of Housing and Community, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

3. Crime and disorder act 1998 • (Local Authority) Welwyn Hatfield Council • Hertfordshire Fire Service • Hertfordshire County Council • Hertfordshire Constabulary • Primary Care Trusts – (NHS Hertfordshire ) • Hertfordshire Police Authority • More Recently • Hertfordshire Probation Trust • But. • Locally we see the UH as one of the key players as well as local partners e.g. Housing Associations etc.

4. CSP priorities Priorities for 2012 /2013 • keep down crime, especially burglary in homes, domestic abuse and other "hate" crime • Monthly Joint Agency Group, Local DV forum • other groups set up the partnership is trying to address a specific issue. • reduce the damage to communities from misuse of drugs and alcohol • Welwyn Hatfield Substance misuse Group • reduce worry about anti-social behaviour • Local Anti-Social Behaviour Forum • manage offenders and reduce re-offending • Local Prolific and Priority offenders group • promote reassurance and confidence • All the partners’ responsibility to be reassuring and highlighting the work being undertaken.

5. Introduction to new tools and powers Christine Graham

6. Putting Victims First More effective responses to anti-social behaviour

7. Putting victims first • Empowering communities • Swift, effective action • Long term solutions

8. The Government wants to see: • Agencies identifying vulnerable and repeat victims earlier and responding at the first sign of trouble • A simpler toolkit – with 19 powers reduced to 6 • Tough orders to deal with ASB that escalates into criminality • The community getting involved in tackling ASB • Agencies held to account locally by Police and Crime Commissioners and by victims through the Community Trigger

9. Community Trigger • Places a duty on statutory members of Community Safety Partnership to act where: • Five individuals from five different households in a neighbourhood complain; or • An individual complains to authorities on a minimum of three occasions • Community Safety Partnership can reject the complaint as malicious

10. Community Trigger • ASB will be defined as ‘harassment, alarm or distress’ to members of the public not ‘nuisance and annoyance’ • Third parties (in the case of vulnerable victims) and businesses will be able to initiate the trigger • Duty to act – letter within 14 days explaining what action will be taken

11. Community Trigger • Partnerships must decide and publish criteria, process and reporting mechanism they intend to use • Pilots are currently running and are due to finish at the end of October • Further guidance will then be published

12. Community Trigger Pilots • Brighton and Hove – see council website • Richmond Housing Partnership – see their website • Manchester City Council – see council website

13. New tools and powers

14. Criminal Behaviour Order ASBO Drink Banning Order Drink Banning Order on conviction ASBO on conviction Crime Prevention Injunction Individual Support Order Intervention Order ASB Injunction Graffiti Removal Notice  Litter Clearing Notice Street Litter Clearing Notice Community Protection Notice Designated Public Place Order Gating Order Dog Control Order Community Protection Order (public space) Community Protection Order (closure) Premises Closure Order Crack House Closure Order Noisy Premises Closure Order S161 Closure Order

15. Definition of anti-social behaviour • Crime Prevention Injunction – nuisance and annoyance • Criminal Behaviour Order – behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress

16. Crime Prevention Injunction • In effect it will be an ASBI • Civil burden of proof – balance of probability • Hearsay evidence admissible • Will be granted when defendant engaged in conduct causing annoyance to another and it is just and convenient to make the order • Can impose positive obligations eg drug and alcohol programmes • No maximum or minimum duration – still under consideration

17. Crime Prevention Injunction • Will be heard in the County Court – more amenable to hearsay evidence • 10-17 year olds will be heard in Youth Court • Interim orders available without notice • Generally need to take account of the views of other partners • £175 to apply for an injunction in the County Court

18. Crime Prevention Injunction • Power of arrest can be attached to whole injunction or just certain clauses • Breach of injunction = contempt of court • Breach must be proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ • Adult – unlimited fine or max imprisonment of 2 years • Child – imposition of curfew, activity or supervision requirement • Repeated breach causing serious harm by 14-17 year olds could lead to custodial sentence

19. Criminal Behaviour Order • Replaces post conviction ASBO and is part of the sentencing process • LA and police can ask CPS to request an order on conviction • Available against any offence not just one involving ASB • Order made where it would assist prevention of harassment, alarm or distress to member of the public • Can have positive obligations • Breach is a criminal offence with a maximum of five years in custody • Police will be able to deal with ‘minor breaches’ quickly and informally

20. Timing? • Third session of Parliament (where a future ASB Bill would be introduced) will run from May 2013 – May 2014 • Any announcements on the legislation to be included in this session will be made in the Queen’s Speech in May 2013 before anything else is announced into the public domain • Legislative proposals will be published as part of a Draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny

21. What can you be doing to get ready? • Deciding who will be responsible for applying for injunctions/orders • Who will pay? • Good to draw up protocols before you start to use them • Begin to consider the process for Community Trigger

22. What to we do in the meantime?

23. Existing tools and powers Christine Graham

24. Which tools and powers – how do we decide? • What evidence is available? Are victims/witnesses willing to come to court? • Is the situation getting worse? Is violence being used? • Is the person a high risk or vulnerable victim? • Is there only one person affected or is the whole community? • Will the perpetrator engage with us?

25. When you are considering taking legal action – consider: • What evidence is there of anti-social behaviour? • Why is the ‘order’ necessary?

26. An incremental approach

27. Different tools and powers • Early intervention – voluntary • Housing related tools • Environmental tools • Area based tools • Youth related tools

28. Housing • Introductory tenancies • Acceptable Behaviour Contracts • Parental Contract Agreement • Anti Social Behaviour Injunction • Anti Social Behaviour Order • Demotion Orders

29. Anti Social Behaviour Injunction • Conduct which is capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to another person • Court order • Party is required to do, or refrain from doing, certain acts • Can have power of arrest attached • Can be granted ex parte • Behaviour that directly or indirectly affects the housing management function – therefore tenure neutral • Can be varied or discharged without notice

30. Demotion Order • Tenant, another resident to the property has behaving in a way that is capable of causing nuisance or annoyance • Application to county court • Lasts for 12 months but can be extended if the landlord serves a NOSP during the period • Tenant loses certain rights eg right to buy or exchange

31. Environmental • Vehicles – Repair, Sale, Abandonment • Litter – Clearing notices, street litter control • Printed material • Graffiti / Fly-posting • Advertisements – Unlawful display and removal

32. Vehicles Vehicles • It is an offence to repair vehicles on the road following an accident or breakdown more than72hours of the incident • It is an offence to sell two or more vehicles on a road within 500 metres of each other • The sanctions for the above two are a fine of up to £2500 or a £100 FPN • In relation to FPN’s the power is given to officers to request the name and address for above offences. • New power to remove vehicles on the road without notice

33. Litter Litter • Litter Clearing Notices- notice can be given to individuals and businesses to remove litter from their land • Street Litter Control Notices - requires commercial premises to prevent or remove litter outside their property ( e.g fast food outlets) • FPNs introduced for failure to comply with above

34. Printed Material Advertising • Introduces the power to control the free distribution of printed matter on designated land (e.g outside a transport hub) • Political, religious and charitable material exempt • Sanction- £75 FPN

35. Graffiti/Fly posting Flyposting and graffiti • Sets £75 FPN • Introduces a requirement to provide name and address in relation to FPN • Extends graffiti removal notices to fly posting • The ASB Act 2003 prohibited the sale of aerosol paints to under 16s. The CNEA requires Trading Standards to carry out annual enforcement action

36. Advertisements Flyposting Amends Town and Country Planning Act requiring individuals who authorise fly-posting to prove that : • The advertisement was displayed without their knowledge • They took all reasonable steps to prevent the display; or • They took all reasonable steps to secure removal once it had been displayed.

37. Place specific tools • Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) • Dispersal Order • Premises closure

38. Designated Public Place Order (DPPO) • To tackle on street drinking • Replaces alcohol ban byelaw • Put in place by Council – designated by elected members • Offence is not to drink alcohol in public but offence is to continue to drink alcohol when asked to stop by a police officer or PCSO

39. Premises Closure • Closure of Premises for Persistent Disorder or Nuisance • Section 118, Schedule 20 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 • Amends the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 (Crack House Closure) • Tenure neutral power that can be used to offer communities immediate respite by temporarily closing a premises for three months with the possibility to extend closure for a further three months

40. Closure Orders Threshold test – • Significant and persistent disorder or • Persistent serious nuisance to a community • Power of last resort where other interventions have been used/considered and rejected • The implications for vulnerable residents (perpetrators) must be considered • A police force and local authority power with each required to consult each other • On service of Closure Order the authority must apply to the Mag’s court within 24hours. • Breach is a criminal offence and imprisonable

41. Dispersal Order • Designed to give the Police, working with local authority’s power’s to target problem area’s to help communities remove intimidation and ASB from their streets. • Power enables a senior Police officer to designate an area where there is significant and persistent ASB and a problem of group’s (2 or more) causing intimidation. • The local authority must agree to dispersal orders • Decision to designate lasts up to 6 months but can be renewed if necessary and must be published in a local newspaper or by notices in the local area

42. Dispersal Order Gives Police and designated PCSO’s the power to • Disperse groups where the relevant officer has reasonable grounds for believing that their presence or behaviour has resulted, or is likely to result, in a member of the public from being harassed, intimidated, alarmed or distressed. Individuals can be directed to lead the locality and maybe excluded from the area for up to 24hours. • Return young person’s under 16 home who were out on the street’s and not under the control of an adult after 9PM if they are either at risk or vulnerable from ASB, crime etc; or causing or at risk of causing ASB

43. Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003- Dispersal of groups continued Refusal to follow an officer’s direction to disperse is an offence with a fine of up to £2500 or 3 months imprisonment.

44. Dispersal Order Keys to taking effective action • Have you discussed your concerns with other agencies? • Use your local multi-agency meetings • Make sure you are sharing information with other agencies – Safety Net – case management system • Who is the right agency to lead on the action? • What is the most appropriate tool? • Don’t be tempted to take action in isolation

45. Guidance Home Office – A guide to anti-social behaviour tools and powers http://bit.ly/SR4jI0 A summary of tools and powers http://bit.ly/TBUfSW

46. The Community Impact Statement Christine Graham Kerry Clare, Welwyn Hatfield Community Housing Trust Lorraine Telford, Crown Prosecution Service

47. When should it be used? • In legal proceedings • to emphasise the impact of harm to the community • In case management • To support evidence based decision making based on harm caused to the community • To test for reasonableness and appropriateness of action • In partnership problem solving • To highlight the wider impact of ASB to partner agencies • To ensure accountable bodies are aware of the impact of the ASB • To encourage all partners to contribute to solutions

48. What does it include? • Summary of ASB • Key details of ASB • Background information • A short paragraph to identify who in the community has been affected by ASB and how the information has been gathered

49. What does it include? • Community profile • This seeks to describe the community that is being affected by ASB • Harm caused to the community • Capture the wider impact as opposed to individual impact which will be covered elsewhere • Give each community harm an appropriate title and focus on that particular harm – where possible, include the number of people affected by a particular harm

50. What does it include? • Impact on community resources • Make sure you also identify indirect harm such as: • Increased cost of service provision eg extra security • Impact on sustainable communities eg lettings problems, failed tenancies, neighbourhood decline • Additional resource requirements eg private security patrols • Include statistics such as costs, and perception survey results if they are available and relevant to the case